The Bone Eater
by Evil Is A Relative Term
Summary: When Kikyo is resurrected by a shadowy enemy, Kagome loses her own humanity. Transformed into a demon, she learns to adapt in the halls of the Western Fortress. A Kagome-turns-demon story like no other begins now!
1. Between Life and Death

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimer applies.

A/N: I've never written an Inuyasha fanfiction before, so forgive me if I'm a little shaky.

The Bone Eater

Chapter One

-Between Life and Death-

_It wasn't anybody's fault._ That was Kagome's thought as she tumbled backwards into the well, the sky a round eye above her growing quickly smaller. With the illusion created by encroaching death, it seemed to take her a long time to fall. Would her dead body reappear in her own time? Or did she need to be alive for the magic of the well to work?

How could anyone have anticipated it? Prevented it? The plot had come from nowhere. Kagome hadn't even been certain it was possible. Someone had well and truly resurrected Kikyo, not just trapped a bit of her soul in a clay jar and called it by her name.

She'd felt it. A blinding pain as she sat on the lip of the well, waiting for Inuyasha to return from confirming the rumor that someone was attempting to bring his not-so-former love back to life.

The hanyou had rushed off the moment he'd heard the news, leaving the others in Edo. In a fit of nervousness the current Shikon miko had returned to the place she and Inuyasha had first met, the well that had begun the portal to the crazy feudal adventure that her life had become.

And, as she was sitting there doing nothing more than fervently wishing that Inuyasha wouldn't cast her to the side when he returned (and he would return, because Kagome was in possession of their collection of jewel shards), it felt like someone finally succeeded in tearing her soul in twain. Like she was a sheet of paper and some careless student had took hold of each of her corners and _ripped_, tracing a white hot line down her center. For a moment she was two people, in two places, and then she was only Kagome and then the pain had drowned even that out.

She had an enormous soul, as Kanna might testify, with older souls than her own nestling inside the newest one. The largest part belonged to Midoroko, but that was encapsulated in the Jewel, detached from the rest. A significant section had belonged to Kikyo. As much as she might dislike her rival, she hadn't been an unskilled or untalented Miko. And when that piece, that part of her was stolen, her scream was so shrill as to be almost inaudible to human ears.

Back bowing, feet leaving the earth, she only caught a glimpse of a figure on the fringes of the forest. A figure drawing back a bow as tall as they. And then her chest was sprouting some three and a half feet of ash as an arrow as thick as her index finger hit its target with unerring accuracy.

Over the sound of her own silent scream, she could hear her heart beat in her ears, the way it leaped, as if startled, then fell into unnerving silence.

_I don't want to die_, Kagome thought muzzily. _I don't want to die. _Around her, the well began to pulse with swirling blue magic. Solidly, steadily, as if it had replaced the heart now gone silent in her chest.

-X-X-X-

Sesshomaru was displeased when his brother and his pack converged on his fortress, the red-clad hanyou with his arms full of the wench who'd been trailing him around these past few years. Apparently someone had tried to do away with the ningen. From what he understood of the hanyou's demands, they'd discovered her half-dead at the bottom of some well.

Raising a brow, he asked, "How is that this Sesshomaru's concern?"

"Bastard," Inuyasha had snarled, but the monk pulled him back. Which was just as well. After all, it was Inuyasha that was the bastard of his honored father, not him.

"Our apologizes, Sesshomaru-sama," the human interjected smoothly. "What Inuyasha meant to ask of you was if our companion might rest in the sanctuary of your fortress while she heals. Kaede-sama, an experienced healer, has done what she can for her, but we were afraid to leave her unguarded while we pursued the enemy that attacked her."

When he paused, obviously expected a response, Sesshomaru remained silent. He had no wish to house the hanyou's miko for an undetermined length of time as his incompetent pack pursued some shadowy enemy. He'd taken note of how long it was taking them to gather the scattered shards of the jewel and found himself less than impressed.

The monk cleared his throat. "We believe the attack to be part of a larger plot."

Sesshomaru still failed to see how this concerned him. But he did see an opening to taunt the hanyou. "And where were you, Inuyasha, while your human was attacked?"

The hanyou simultaneously snarled and flushed. Once again the monk intervened. "He was taking care of another matter," he said, but there was look in his eyes that said he was displeased by Inuyasha's incompetence as well. He waved a hand to indicate another human, this one clad in traditional miko garb. The girl, who looked remarkably similar to the one now collapsed in the hanyou's arms, inclined her head slightly.

It took a moment for him to remember who the girl was. He hadn't smelled her scent in some fifty years and he'd hardly taken much note of it at that time. But her presence roused his interest.

"This Sesshomaru thought he might need remind you that dragging in dead things is behavior for pups, but it appears you have found someone both foolish and powerful to resurrect the long dead. This Sesshomaru is curious as to why you haven not destroyed it yet."

The miko tensed, though it would not make a difference if she defended herself against him or not. His half-brother's outrage was amusing, but he had not been in jest when he'd proposed destroying the resurrected creature. To raise a being so that even the taint of the dead did not linger meant that there was a fearsome creature loose in his lands, one that had some purpose in bringing her back.

And the easiest way to assure that their agenda was not realized would be to destroy their creation. But logic had never swayed the hanyou before, so it was too much to hope that it would be now.

As the monk continued to babble some explanation that he half-listened to, he returned his attention to the other female. He was aware of her name, as the others certainly shouted it often enough, but to allow a thing a name was to grant it dignity. Dignity that was certainly undeserved by the short-lived ningen. Her scent was almost overwhelmed by the smell of sickness, which clung to her. He would guess she was fevered and wondered, idly, why they'd chosen to move her. Humans tended to be fragile, after all, and even he could barely hear her fluttering heartbeat.

With resignation, he realized the hanyou might never let him hear the end of it if he allowed one of Inuyasha's females to die on his doorstep. He might be forced to kill the hanyou just to keep him silent, after all the trouble he'd gone to spare him. After all, it was not as if he would actually have to see the ningen while she was in residence.

"Jaken," he said, interrupting the monk.

"Show them to the healing rooms. Inform Hoshiko that the girl will be in her charge. And then escort them out of my fortress."

Jaken bowed, then rubbed his webbed hands together worriedly. "But sire, Hoshiko hasn't been in service to the healing rooms for some time."

"Then she will certainly have enough time to care for a single human girl," Sesshomaru said dismissively.

-X-X-X-

The Hoshiko in question received the kappa's command with no little grumbling. The female inuyokai had served in the healing rooms for a long time before her mate had successfully bred her and once her pup had been whelped she'd expected to take a good fifty or sixty years in raising him, but now it seemed that after only eleven she was being called back.

She was aware of the reason, given that her mate had recently and intentionally given offence to one of the Southern Lord's retainers. While he'd needed to be reminded of his place, it still hadn't been Matsu's role to remind him of that. Though, if he was only assigning her a single charge, Sesshomaru-sama hadn't been totally displeased. It was even a ningen, which meant it might well die before too long.

Pulling up her long honey blond hair, Hoshiko changed into something she wouldn't mind burning after her assignment was over to rid it of the ningen stench. Just as she was about to leave her rooms, Hide barreled in, wrapping himself in her skirts (Note: Hide's name is pronounced HEE-day.) "Whatcha doin' 'ka-san?" he demanded.

Hoshiko rapped her offspring gently on the head as she un-entangled herself. "Breathe when you speak, Hide. And finish your words," she chided. Though small for his age, Hide was full of energy and insatiable curiosity, which meant looking after him in the Western Fortress was a full time occupation in and of itself. It sometimes seemed like if she took her eyes of him for only a few minutes she found herself apologizing to someone for something.

She just didn't have enough youki didn't discipline him properly, it seemed. And well, if she could get him to address his father properly instead of calling him 'Mattun,' she'd be satisfied.

Instead of being dissuaded, Hide simply dug his sharp little dewclaws into the fabric of her skirt and peered up at her with wide brown eyes. "Where are you going, ka-san? Can I come?"

"I'm going to go look over a patient."

"What's that?"

"Someone who's sick," Hoshiko explained as she carefully pried the little fingers away. It was sturdy cloth and wouldn't rip that easily, but it was better to break the habit before Hide got his little paws into someone's expensive and delicate fabrics.

"Who is it?"

Hoshiko sighed. Sometimes she missed the cute pup who couldn't speak the human tongue. Ever since he'd managed to keep a human transformation last fall he'd been an unstoppable force, though he often slipped into his dog form when his attention wandered.

"It's some ningen. A girl, I think."

Hide wrinkled up his nose. "Why is there a ningen? Is someone going to eat her?"

"Alright, that's enough questions," she scolded him. "I have to go see about her. I doubt Sesshomaru-sama will be pleased if I let her die on her first day here."

Given what she'd heard about ningens in general, Hoshiko was rather surprised that the girl was alive at all. She'd been around fire demons who radiated less heat. Barking instructions to the apprentices, Hoshiko had basins of cool water brought to her. Stripping the girl with brisk efficiency, Hoshiko bathed her and rebound the bandages on her chest. All the while, the girl mumbled on and on, sometimes jerking restlessly, and once she cried out.

Pulling an eyelid open, she observed the girl's unfocused pupils. "You're hallucinating," she informed the ningen. Hoshiko frowned. The girl apparently had a god of luck on her side, because the arrow had come within a paper's width of being fatal. It was an ugly wound, but there hadn't been any undue redness or discoloration to indicate infection had set in, though with her fever, it was possible the infection had gone directly to her blood. If that was the case, then it was only a matter of time.

Curiously Hoshiko sniffed her breath, then brought her nose back over the area of the wound. She couldn't smell any infection, though the girl's ningen scent was confusing her nose. Sweat, pain, and a sharper kind of odor that meant she'd been vomiting overlaid her so heavily that it was possible she was missing it. The herbs the human had packed in the wound to help prevent infection certainly weren't helping.

"Well, it looks like you aren't going to be going anywhere for a while," she informed her. "I hope you don't mind, but since I don't smell anything he can catch, I'm going to bringing my son with me. I'll try to keep him out of your hair, but I make no promises ningen."

-X-X-X-

When she heard the sharp little yelp of pain, Hoshiko bounded into the room, lips pulled back from her teeth, ready to either snarl at Hide for hurting himself or at the ningen for hurting him. What she saw brought her up short.

Hide had apparently crawled up onto the bed to examine the ningen again, but not he was laying very still on his back, head carefully tilted to expose his throat. The ningen, Kagome she reminded herself, as she'd bothered to ask her name of Jaken when Hide wouldn't let the matter be, held herself above him on arms that were only slightly unsteady. She was panting, from exertion or the fever that still hadn't broken. By the unfocused way she was staring down at Hide, Hoshiko would guess she was still caught up in her hallucination.

But it was such a peculiar pose for a ningen to assume that she didn't immediately attack her for threatening her pup.

Moving carefully toward the bed, she slowly moved her hand in front of Kagome's eyes. When they began to track it, she said in a controlled voice, "Get off the bed Hide." Her pup scrambled out of the way. "Are you hurt?" she asked him.

"Kagome bit my ear," he snuffled.

Hoshiko blinked and turned to him, uncertain that she'd heard right. "Show me," she demanded.

Hide obediently came closer. Sure enough, there was a perfect imprint of teeth, quickly turning red, along the edge of his ear. "I didn't mean to bother Kagome," Hide apologized.

"I'm sure it's fine," Hoshiko said slowly. She'd never heard of ningen disciplining their offspring like that and she was almost certain that Kagome had been cowing her pup into submission when she'd come in the door.

A soft thump drew her attention back to the bed, where Kagome had collapsed. "What's going on here?" Hoshiko growled. Stomping over to the bed, Hoshiko pulled up one eyelid. A narrow slit of a pupil rolled toward her in an eye gone completely crimson.

With a noise somewhere between a groan and a growl, the girl stretched, face elongating into a muzzle, ears lengthening, joints reforming. When she was finished, a demon hung over the edges of the bed.

If the sorry mishmash of animal traits was any indication she was a spirit demon. It wasn't totally unheard of for ningen to turn into youkai. Certain families of tengu, for example, were said to have descended from a monk who'd become a demon. She just hadn't expected her charge, who was supposed to be a miko of some importance, to transform into one right in front of her.

However, instead of the change healing her as she might of expected, Kagome only looked worse. Cautiously Hoshiko advanced, running her hand over the broad horse-like muzzle. Clouded, striking blue eyes peered at her through slits, then closed again. Swept-back horns jutted from the girl's skull just behind her ears, making gentle crescent moon shapes on either side of her head, the hollows facing inward before the horns curled back out again. Her lower jaw, however, was constructed like a dog's and she made no protest as Hoshiko exposed gleaming teeth.

Her shoulder would hit roughly below a human male's breastbone, Hoshiko estimated. A stiff ruff of fur began between her horns, thick until it hit her at her shoulders (withers?) where it trailed to a ridge that traced the length of her spine until it hit her prehensile tail, which was furred like a long-haired dogs. Her body was rather doglike, but the front of her forelegs were scaled like a bird's, which is rather what her all her feet resembled, except that they were furred. There were smaller spurs of horn at the base of her neck and at the joint on her forelegs.

"What a mess you are," Hoshiko muttered. Tree demons sometimes had the same sort of conglomerated look, but they tended more towards an avian or serpentine appearance as a whole. But then she had a startling thought. She'd been treating this girl like a ningen, but what if she evaluated her symptoms as a demon? Or more specifically, a spirit demon?

"Spirit demons lose their human form when they no longer have the energy to maintain it, just like any other demon," Hoshiko told the barely conscious youkai. "And very young spirit demons can't maintain their human form when they're separated from their real bodies. I know you were a ningen until very recently, so do you have any guesses at what your body might be? It's probably something old, powerful in its own right. Something you had a really strong connection to."

A sound rumbled from deep in the girl's chest, but Hoshiko shook her head in frustration. "No good. Can you write?"

The muzzle dipped once.

"Hide, run and get the tray of sand you practice your characters in. Kagome needs it."

For once Hide did exactly as he was told and the sand tray was produced. Long, curved talons traced shaky letters and Hoshiko read them aloud as they were formed. "Bone...Eater's...Well. That's it?" Barely waited for confirmation, Hishoko barked for the apprentices, one of who was sent scurrying to find Jaken and hopefully information about the location of the well, the other to procure demons strong enough to carry at least two hundred pounds of dead weight an undetermined distance.

A/N: Yes, there is an OC in this chapter, but I really couldn't imagine any of the main characters dedicating a significant portion of their life to caring for a very sick Kagome.

And I really wish my line breaks would appear correctly the first time around.


	2. Kagome, Kagome, The Demon in the Well

Disclaimer: All copyrights belong to the appropriate parties.

A/N: Alright, I admit it. I have tons of fun writing Hoshiko. But really, Sesshomaru just so nonreactive to things that I needed another full youkai's point of view for this. And, by the way, if you still can't picture what Kagome looks like, try imagining a furred eastern dragon, only slightly modified (And not nearly so long).

Also, a word on how inuyoukai culture works in this story. Sesshomaru is the ultimate alpha of the House of the West, but the household itself is composed of smaller sub-packs, each having their own alpha and internal hierarchy. The packs are often formed by profession in the lower packs and family association in the ranks of the courtiers, though these rules are not absolute. The lower packs (servants and staff) show subservience to the upper packs (composed primarily of minor military leaders) when they are in residence at the Western Fortress, who in turn submit to Sesshomaru. It's primarily a military court, though it isn't exactly a stranger to creature comforts or 'high' culture. There is a smaller and more literary court that resides at the House of the Moon, which is a palace in the mountains where Sesshomaru's mother still rules as a dowager.

The Bone Eater

Chapter Two

-Kagome, Kagome, The Demon in the Well-

Hoshiko smiled at the young youkai who was staring dourly at the well, keeping a firm hold on Hide's ruff. The pup, now returned to his dog form, wriggled restlessly in her grip, but she didn't release him. The well was located within smelling distance of a ningen village and she wasn't about to let her pup's insatiable curiosity lead him within sight of the mud huts or whatever it was ningen dwelt in these days.

"You'll feel better if you crawl back inside," she informed Kagome. That had been their first action upon locating the well, which hadn't been as difficult as Hoshiko had feared when Jakken had only been able to give them a general area. Kagome's scent as a human permeated the area, like she'd spent time around the well for an extended period, the oils and sweat from her skin soaking into the wood. The smell of her blood was also a faint, metallic undertone, proving that this was the place where she'd almost met her demise.

Lowering her into the well with the help of the two sturdy inuyokai she'd recruited for the job had been their first action after they'd arrived. That had finally broken Kagome's fever, but as soon as that was resolved, another issue had presented itself. The miko-turned-youkai still couldn't keep down any food, though she could drink water without ill affect.

To let her starve to death after all that trouble? The very thought irked Hoshiko, until she remembered that she wasn't dealing with the kind of youkai she encountered on a daily basis. Her exposure to spirit youkai was fairly limited, for very practical reasons. Like kami, spirit youkai were bound to specific areas or objects. Until they reached a certain age, it was both difficult and dangerous for them to range far abroad.

And until that point, they derived sustenance not from their animal or humanoid forms, but rather through their material bodies. Tree youkai, for example, needed only the sun and the rain, though a few bodies sacrificed at their roots had never gone amiss. With that in mind, she'd had one of the inuyoukai toss the body of a boar demon that had the unfortunate luck to challenge them down the well.

Kagome had stared down after it, mouth agape, but even the reluctant demon couldn't miss the way curling tendrils of black and blue mist had snaked around the body, dissolving the flesh. Eventually she'd get to the point where she could eat for herself, but until then it appeared they'd just have to toss carcasses down the well at irregular intervals. Because she was a well, not a tree, whatever nutrients she took from the boar's body seemed to be absorbed only by the mass of youki that created Kagome's body. Experimentation proved that even dumping several carcasses in at once didn't fill out Kagome's slender sides. So there was no telling how long Kagome could go after a good 'feeding' before she would need to be fed again.

It was amusing, how unhappy the former ningen appeared at the situation. Though Hoshiko supposed she'd be a little disappointed too, if she had been, well, not an inuyoukai. Anything else was inherently inferior. Though at least she smelled better now. Ningen smelled like mortality and bodily excretions. Kagome smelled like water drawn from a spring deep underground, cold and sharp. It was a little unsettling, as scents went, unlike the warm-furred scents of the inuyoukai Hoshiko normally found herself in the company of.

Kagome was still startled whenever her prehensile tail, which was longer than she was when measured from nose-tip to rump, flicked apprehensively whenever she was nervous.

Had it only been a week ago she'd been sitting on the rim of this very well, her deepest concern that Inuyasha would abandon her for Kikyo? Now here she was, standing on four limbs and considering crawling back down the Bone Eater's well like some overgrown furred lizard so her head would feel less muzzy.

She was grateful that at least her forelimbs were still jointed like human's at the elbow and shoulder, allowing her part of the range of motion she was used to. But, really, it was a toss-up whether the lack of opposable thumbs or her inability to speak would drive her mad first.

Glaring at Hoshiko, the golden-haired inuyoukai that had been playing nursemaid to her since this farce began, Kagome resigned herself to one last descent into the Well before they returned to Sesshomaru's fortress. According to Hoshiko, she'd been in his healing rooms, but Kagome had no memories of her time there, only confused impressions of people and events that had no place in any sickroom.

"While we are all demons, sometime this century would still be good," Hoshiko commented.

With an inarticulate grumble, Kagome crawled up onto the lip of the well, careful not to dig her talons into the wood. She then stared down the long, dark tunnel with hesitation. Kagome didn't remember it fading to black like that. She'd always been able to see the dry bottom before she leaped as a human. Oh, she did not want to do this.

A swift kick to her rump decided the issue for her. With a surprised screech (or was the sound that emerged from her throat more of a roar?) Kagome tumbled down into the darkness. She tried to scrabble at the sides of the well to slow her descent, but the walls suddenly seemed much further away than they'd looked from the top. For a moment the darkness was absolute, but then swirls of blue light began to illuminate her surroundings, pulsing softly. When they brushed against her pelt they felt like ice.

With a splash, she landed in what felt like water, then some force pulled her under the surface. There was no moment of panic—her body seemed to understand that it could breathe here and after a moment Kagome relaxed completely. Twisting her body backwards until she made a full loop, the long hair of her tail almost brushing her muzzle, Kagome enjoyed the zero-gravity sensation that not-water provided.

_Of course, why would there be gravity in time?_

Kagome blinked at the thought that had spun through her mind as naturally as any she had ever had. Then she looked down to her taloned feet, where threads of the blue light were gathering, caught around the long digits like spider webs. _I couldn't _really_ be swimming through time, right?_ she asked herself.

Suddenly uncomfortable, Kagome lost her former grace as she clawed her way to the surface of the vast dark ocean, leaping upwards from a surface that suddenly solidified underneath her. She was startled when the force of her leap actually landed her on the rim of the well. Well, almost. Clinging tightly to the aged wood, she dug her back talons into the cracks in the stone that lined part of the well and propelled herself the rest of the way over, landing in a distinctly ungraceful slump.

She could almost feel Hoshiko's brow rise and she tried to disentangle herself. There was just so much tail and it almost seemed to have mind of its own.

"Well," Hoshiko said after a long moment of amusement, "you're young."

Kagome huffed in indignation, but after a beat she realized that she probably did look pretty funny. You know, besides the whole patchwork monster effect.

"Are you ready to go?" Hoshiko asked her when she'd finally managed to stand up properly.

Kagome nodded, knowing from past experience that trying to talk was pointless. She sounded like something from Jurassic Park, that foreign film her friends had insisted they watch the last time she'd been home. Looking expectantly at Hoshiko, she was surprised when the demoness waited for the other two inuyoukai to flank them before they moved.

Noticing her gaze, Hoshiko said, "Daichi and Hayate are capable guards from my pack. Now that I have Hide, I'm not supposed to flounce about the countryside unescorted, not even for newborn well demons. I wonder what your pack will make of you when you return. Sesshomaru's half-brother is your alpha, isn't he?"

Kagome nodded, suddenly seized with worry. What _would_ Inuyasha say? There was not even an iota of reiki in her body, which meant that her powers as a miko had disappeared along with her human form. She probably couldn't even sense shards now. And while she knew that wasn't the only reason Inuyasha kept her around, no matter what he said when he was trying to hurt her feelings, she was more of an archer than anything else. And there wasn't going to be any archering done in this form.

-X-X-X-

Kagome settled with a huff down on the futon laid out for her in Hoshiko's spacious quarters. The inuyoukai had informed her she wasn't ill enough to make her march all the way over to the healing rooms when she could watch over her progress as easily in the comfort of her own space. Because she had the impression that Hoshiko was acting as a kind of den mother to her, she didn't complain, nor did she yank her tail of Hide's mouth. The pup was currently staging a battle with the fluff, for which she was grateful, because it meant she couldn't feel his sharp little milk teeth. Not that they hurt, but when she had once spent an entire morning dragging around a determined little pup who'd just discovered tug-of-war.

At, least, she thought with an internal grin, her fascination with dog ears could be explored without repercussion, though she didn't know how Inuyasha would react if an unfamiliar demon came up to him and gnawed affectionately on his adorable white ears.

She at least could move easily in this body now, though human speech was a bit tricky. She had to concentrate really hard in order to 'project' her thoughts. Luckily it seemed most of the youkai understood nonverbal cues well enough and her ears and tail seemed to move instinctually to convey her mood. It was hiding it that was the problem.

Kagome was a little nervous. Hoshiko had sent a message to Sesshomaru about the startlingly development, but he'd been out patrolling the borders and wasn't due in until this evening. Hoshiko had said there were rumors from the outpost scouts that Inuyasha's pack had been traveling back with him for the last day or so.

Suddenly deciding that movement at least would calm her nerves somewhat, she stood, gently picked up Hide in her massive jaws and set off to find Hoshiko. As the pup wriggled excitedly, Kagome thought dryly that Hoshiko was making the most of having a convenient pup-sitter. She thought if her children still acted like this at eleven or however old Hide was, and he'd only _just_ been weaned, she would have went mad a long time ago.

As Kagome wended her way through the halls, intent on reaching the gardens where Hoshiko had to gather herbs, she was still impressed by the sheer enormity of Sesshomaru's fortress. For all that they usually saw him ranging up and down his land, he had a place like this to come home to, full of life and youkai of all breeds.

And now that she wasn't a human, they seemed to pay little enough attention to her. Some were even outright friendly. Most seemed woefully misinformed about humans, though humans seemed to suffer from the same kind of misinformation about youkai culture.

Maybe someone else might have cried, complained, and generally spent their days moping about, but Kagome had always been a hardy, optimistic soul. After all, Hoshiko had said it was only a matter of time before she gained the ability to transform into a humanoid appearance, being a higher demon capable of reason. Unlike the unintelligent lower youaki who graced Sesshomaru's table next to normal game and now fed her. As Hoshiko had spread word around, it had become a game of sorts to dispose of the unneeded parts of kills in the Bone Eater's Well. Kagome tried really hard not to think about the nature of those kills. It was one thing to eat meat, but having intelligent beings fed to her?

All this ran through her mind as her talons clicked a jaunty tune against Sesshomaru's stone floors. While many of the living quarters and rooms were made of the more easily worked but more dangerously flammable wood, many sections of the fortress were made with finely fitted stone. Halfway regretful she could no longer hum, though she'd discovered a pleased kind of purring sound wasn't all the way out of her repertoire, Kagome burst into the sunlight of one of the many gardens cultivated both for pleasure and to satisfy the stomachs of omnivorous and herbivorous youkai.

"Hello, Kagome," the male inuyoukai called Daichi greeted her and Kagome knew she'd successfully trailed Hoshiko. While she still, thankfully, depended more on sight than scent, her nose was certainly stronger. Hoshiko smelt like Hide, milk, and strangely enough a very strong scent of honey overlaid her warm mammalian scent. No matter what romance novels might claim, Kagome had discovered, humans did not smell like flowers, rain, or lightning, but youkai could quite literally smell of all of the above, depending upon what type of youkai they were.

Daichi, for example, smelled like dirt. While she'd never thought of it as an appealing scent as a human, to her youkai senses the smell of clean, fresh-turned earth was refreshing. And Daichi had never been anything but nice, so she pricked her ears in greeting. She was afraid if she concentrated hard enough on her thoughts to project, she would bite down on poor Hide, who wagged his tail eagerly at the sight of the brown haired male. "Want me to take Hide?" he asked with amusement.

Kagome gratefully set the little ball of energy on the ground, watching as he tirelessly bounded forward to attack Daichi's shoes. _Why doesn't he take human form?_ she asked the other inuyoukai curiously.

"Because it takes concentration when you're first learning to use your human form. Besides," he said as he scooped the pup into his arms, "his mom will scold him more if he's this rambunctious in human form."

Daichi waited until Kagome joined him at his side before he began leading her towards Hoshiko. While none were as bad as Kouga, many of the male inuyoukai that Hoshiko had introduced her to (as her mate's pack was composed mostly of guards, the vast majority were male) tended to stick closer, with a dog's lack of respect for personal space. Partly it had to do with socialization—physical touch was regarded in a very different way among the inuyoukai, who needed it in order to be healthy, well-adjusted individuals, than among humans. But the other part was Hoshiko's fault.

Given everything she'd seen of youkai, Kagome wasn't surprised when rank, or rather one's place in the pack, was important to them. So she tried to be not too terribly offended when Hoshiko had explained to all and sundry that she was an alpha bitch. She even tried to take it as a complement.

"Until we know how your instincts will react to someone trying to dominate you, it's best not to take the chance," Hoshiko had told her seriously. "We don't know much about your powers, but if your real body is any indication, you'd be capable of some serious damage just because someone accidentally tried to put you in your place."

Kagome had understood that intellectually, though she'd been a little skeptical about the domination bit, but the real problem was that her scent proclaimed her an unmated alpha bitch. Which, apparently, inspired a special kind of respect from youkai looking to join a pack, whether as a mate or a follower. And as her youki was nothing to sneeze at, if what Hoshiko said was any indication, she'd had some very awkward encounters with young youkai.

_I really hope Inuyasha comes back soon, _she thought with a sigh.

A/N: Okay, more of a setting up the story kind of chapter than anything, but Inuyasha and the others return in the next chapter. Until then, thanks for reading. Review if you like and I might be inspired to faster updates.


	3. Love and Youki

Disclaimer: …

A/N: Finally, another segment is out, adding an unexpected newcomer to the mix. Trust me, he was kind of unexpected to me, too.

The Bone Eater

Chapter Three

Love and Youki

Kagome had met most of her friends while they were trying to kill her. For a modern human girl, she supposed this fact should be fairly disturbing, but it was apparently par the course for young feudal-era demons. Or, at least, she thought it must be, because the demon next to her didn't look nearly as upset at being the one who had finally discovered how resistant to domination her inner beast (or inner-inner beast, because she was fairly beastly on the outside as well) was.

In fact, he'd seemed rather pleased at the time and Hoshiko still hadn't been able to explain _why_ to her satisfaction. With a gesture that had looked appalling like a modern shrug, she'd rolled her eyes and declared, "Males!"

Now, Kagome wouldn't exactly call herself an experienced girl when it came to the opposite sex, but she'd been around Inuyashi enough to know that he usually lashed out when he lost a fight. Though, thinking back, Hojo had seemed pretty pleased with being generally ignored and used. Same with Kouga. Or, well, maybe not Kouga. She was pretty certain that was just Kouga being monumentally oblivious to things that didn't suit him.

Temujin was not. He was also a Mongolian tiger demon that stood well over six foot tall, with a luxurious mane of deep red-gold hair that he usually kept tightly constrained in a long braid down his back, grey eyes that were just an iota away from being steely, and a firmly handsome face that seemed tanned from long exposure to the sun. From what she'd been able to gather from speaking to Daichi, he was more companionable than most tiger demons, but she still couldn't fathom why he hadn't been more upset about her youki overpowering his.

In fact, he'd all out roared with laughter as soon as he could draw breath enough.

But, despite all this, Kagome felt strangely comfortable in his presence, which was why she hadn't protested when he'd joined her in her vigil over the front gates of the Western Fortress.

"So the old lord's bastard is your alpha?" he asked conversationally as Kagome tried to find a comfortable way to peer over the battlements. Finally she surrendered to the demands of her form, leaping up onto one of the stone blocks and curling her tail around its base, for all the world like some strange gargoyle on a European cathedral.

_I'd guess you'd call Inuyasha that_, Kagome admitted. _So, Sesshomaru's your alpha?_

"No," Temujin answered easily. "I'm only a visitor to his fortress. His is the last of the four great courts that I've been a guest in."

_So, you've been in Japan a while?_

"Yes."

_Which of the courts do you like most?_ Kagome asked curiously.

Temujin contemplated silently for a moment. "I will still say that the tribes of my homeland are superior to the demons here. The demons in this land cage themselves in the trappings of human form."

_And they don't do that in Mongolia?_

There was a proud tilt to his head and a gleam of flashing teeth as he smiled at her. "In my homeland, even our humans know that to dominate others, one must not allow civilization to wear your edges smooth and make you comfortable with idleness and luxury."

Kagome thought that idleness and luxury sounded pretty fine to her, but she didn't say so to the tiger. _But, of all the courts here, which one did you like best? _she pressed.

"I personally admire Sesshomaru-sama," Temujin said. "But, for all his fighting prowess, it seems he lacks purpose."

_Purpose?_

Temujin tilted his head as he looked at her, "If a demon desires domination of lands or demons only for himself, he will lose it as quickly as he has gained it. There must be a reason for him to hold it. Beyond that, he must also have allies to help him in this desire. Sesshomaru lacks these things, yet he has held the lands that belonged to his father without letting a single acre slip from his grasp."

_Oh._ Kagome processed that for a moment, turning it around in her head, thinking of her own encounters with the daiyoukai. He'd always been exceptionally focused and controlled, so beyond his desire for his father's sword it was difficult to peer into his motives.

After that for a while they continued on in silence, Kagome trying to peer unobtrusively at the demon. His motives for challenging her had been just as unclear. It had been soon after she'd started spending more time outside the healing rooms.

It had been early morning and she'd gone into one of the gardens simply because she lacked anything better to do at the moment. She was fairly fluent by now in the old-fashioned characters and diction used during the feudal period, but gazing at the writing for hours on end gave her a headache. It wasn't like Sesshomaru had too many riveting books anyway. Mostly military treatises or records.

She'd go so far as to say that television would at this moment be even better than having thumbs again. For internet, well, that was a little much to hope for. Don't get her wrong, she enjoyed her feudal family—but modern conveniences were called "convenient" for a reason. For passing the time the modern era won, hands down.

Those had been the fairly inane thoughts in her mind as she wound her way through the stone walking paths. She'd just rounded a maple when she'd come muzzle to navel with a strange demon. She'd been about to withdraw and apologize when she'd happened to glance up and meet eyes that at that moment had seemed even colder than Sesshomaru's. That gaze, like a knife run through her spine, had pinned her in place.

Without a single word, his youki had come crashing down on her like a tsunami. For a moment her conscious mind had panicked, but like that first day at the well, her body knew what her mind did not. It could breathe here, among the press of will and power. And, like the well, it drank it in and swallowed it up, then, like a great beast drawing breath, she had felt herself to be somehow more and greater than what was contained in this body, like she was a great leviathan looking down on a lamprey that had dared to try to pierce her skin.

That tremendous beast had not attacked. It had simply peered into the eyes like steel, but steel rusted under its weight, snapping the other demon's will. And that had been it. Not a blow or a word exchanged. Temujin had only stepped back, eyes widening as if he himself couldn't believe he had retreated. That's when he had laughed. Once he had collected himself, he had said, "Temujin. That is my name."

And that had been that.

"Why don't you simply go out to meet them?" Temujin asked her in the present.

Kagome knew by now that rolling her eyes was an almost pointless gesture, as the blue of her irises filled her eyes so completely she barely had any sclera. _One, Hoshiko would kill me for leaving the fortress. Two, I think the guards have orders not to let me leave the gates. Three…three, I want to see them before they see me like this._

The look on Temujin's face was pure skepticism, but he kept his peace.

It wasn't exactly that demons didn't have emotions, she'd discovered. They simply reacted differently to different things than the humans she was used to. Hoshiko, for example, might well have been human, if that old adage about people growing like their pets was true and she'd lived alone with her dog for years. But others, like Temujin, seemed a little strange, alien even, but that could also be explained in part by the genuine cultural divide.

But would the proud tiger youkai understand that she was ashamed to show this form to her friends?

Wordlessly, Temujin left, but he soon reappeared. Holding up the distinctively shaped sake bottles for her inspection, he easily leapt up to the adjoining stone, setting the bottles into the depression between them. "Let us avail ourselves of the Lord's hospitality," he cajoled with a broad wink, bringing out a shallow bowl from beneath his robes and placing it on the edge of her stone.

Kagome gazed down at the bowl warily as Temujin filled it generously before pouring his own drink. _I'm underage._

Temujin glanced up at her, grey eyes very clear now and not like steel at all. "I'm not certain what that means."

_It means—_but she caught herself. In this era, there was no such thing. Lowering her muzzle, she warily flicked her tongue out to lap at the alcohol. She grimaced at her first taste, but it was doable. Reaching forward, she carefully curled her talons beneath the bowl, thanking kami-sama for her flexible neck. Taking a deep breath, she thought privately, _Here goes nothing,_ and downed it all.

"Take it easy," Temujin advised as he reached over to refill her bowl. "They're not due to arrive for a while yet."

What must have been two hours and several bottles of sake later, Kagome had decided she didn't see the appeal of drinking. Whereas Temujin was now lolling indolently on his block, one hand hanging down over the side of the fortress, singing softly some ballad from Mongolia, Kagome wasn't even buzzed, even a little.

Looking down suspiciously into the bottom of her sake bowl, she already had a guess what had happened. Just like Hoshiko had told her from the beginning, she couldn't take sustenance into this body. And while she could see the appeal of that in modern Tokyo's cake shops and patisseries, it well and truly killed the fun of drinking. At least, she thought prosaically, she wasn't throwing it all back up anymore.

_Temujin, if you're not careful, you're going to fall off the side of Sesshomaru's fortress, _she told her companion dryly.

The eyes that looked back at her were still remarkably aware. "I'm not that drunk," Temujin informed her.

And maybe he wasn't. Perhaps this was just Temujin, relaxed. But she still kept an eye on the tiger as he sat back up, looking at her as if he might literally read something from her expression.

"And you're not drunk either," he observed.

_Not at all_, she admitted somewhat sheepishly.

Temujin tilted his head to the side and considered that. "Probably for the best," he said at last.

_Then why in the world did you invite me to drink with you?_

"Who needs an excuse to drink with friends?" the tiger countered. "You're not a ningen. It's not like a few bottles of sake would do much for you."

Kagome sighed.

"Besides," the tiger observed sagely, "If you've never shared a drink, can you really be called friends?"

Her chuckle rumbled through her whole body. _Temujin, that would make you my _only_ friend, unless sharing water counts._ Or soda, in the modern world. She'd certainly set down to enough meals at WacDonalds with her friends and she couldn't count the evenings spent by the fire in the feudal era.

The tiger's answer was a crooked smile that Kagome felt was somewhat unnerving. "Then you've made a very good choice of friends."

She almost pulled away from him then, because what did she really know about the tiger youkai? But that was only her mind, as her body seemed to notice no threat from his side.

Glancing out over the horizon, she was relieved to notice a familiar shadow in the sky. Ah and Un were the only two-headed dragons she knew, so she felt safe in assuming that it was Sesshomaru's party returning.

Temujin followed her gaze. "Ah. Looks like his lordship is returning. Is your alpha with him?"

Eyes narrowing, Kagome leaned out over the battlement, front talons securely gripping the rock. _I don't_…then she caught sight of a second shadow pawing through the air. _Yes! That's __Kilala__. That means at least Sango is with him and she wouldn't be there if the others weren't. _

Temujin smiled indulgently at her. "Look who's about to fall over Sesshomaru-sama's wall now," he said teasingly.

Kagome growled at him, but grinned, tail and ears twitching excitedly. _They're coming back!_

"Yes. Shall we go down?"

Abandoning the evidence of their impromptu drinking party, they descended from the wall, but Kagome didn't bolt immediately into the open courtyard. Instead she slinked along its edges, followed by a bemused tiger. Taking refuge in one of the narrow passages that led into the main courtyard, she peered nervously into the air above the fortress wall.

"You're not going to greet them?"

Kagome didn't answer the tiger. But a familiar voice from behind her said, "What are you doing?"

Like a scolded child, Kagome reluctantly turned to face Hoshiko. _Sesshomaru and the others are coming. _

"Then why are you hiding over here?" she asked, honeyed brow raising heavenward. In her maternal grasp, Hide wriggled excitedly. "I was looking for you." A frown crossed her features and she inhaled more deeply. "Have you been drinking with the tiger?" she demanded.

Kagome flinched like she'd been called out by her own mother. _I can't get drunk, _she prevaricated.

Hoshiko's expression asked, _So?_ "Did you know that when you started drinking?" she asked. "You're just as bad as that mate of mine and his boys."

Temujin didn't seem moved by her scolding at all, but he did look amused.

Hoshiko sighed. "So, we're waiting here then?" she asked, peering out around the two of them.

Kagome ended up crouched on the ground, Hide perched on her back with Hoshiko's firm hand on his ruff, Temujin crouched with his back to the wall on the opposite side of the passage.

"Shh, Hide," Hoshiko encouraged as the massive form of the two-headed dragon landed and the guards rushed to open the gates behind him.

Kagome's eyes tracked the familiar staff and voice that identified Jakenbefore she saw him. The orange checkerboard kimono that followed him off the dragon's back could only belong to Sesshomaru's ward. She felt her entire body twitch forward as Kilala landed gently next to Ah and Un, Sango sliding from her back with a warrior's ease.

She thought she was trembling as the other members of her "family" entered by the gate. Miroku in his distinctive robes, Shippo perched on his shoulders. A low whine escaped her throat as she caught sight of Inuyasha's fire rat robes. But when her eyes landed on the figure that was walking next to him, looking for all the world like it was her right to be there, she went very still.

"That girl with Inuyasha-sama looks a lot like your ningen form. Is she your sister?" Hoshiko inquired in a low voice.

So, he'd left her when she was so badly injured that no one knew whether she might live or die for Kikyo, had he? The impudent whelp.

As the miko who'd been born with the Jewel inside her, she knew it in all its states. The neutral dormant state of it as it rested in her side. The flush and exhilaration of purification as she gathered a new shard and the biting, ugly snap of it when it rested in Naraku's greedy hands. But it had never entered the latter state for her before now. In fact, in all the confusion of her transformation, not once had she stopped to wonder what had become of the shards she'd been carrying.

A very small part of her shied away from the burning sensation that burned in her chest, recognizing it as unnatural, but the higher, rational part of her brain seemed to have gone on vacation. That small part was silenced as the tendrils of power seeped through her body, lighting her veins with a power that wasn't hers, but was eager to couple its strength with her own.

A low, vibrating growl made the others look at her. "Kagome?" Hoshiko asked nervously.

_Down, down, down into the quiet, _a voice whispered in her head.

_Something isn't right, _she realized suddenly, like that rational part of her brain had suddenly come back online at the sound of the voice in her head. But it was too late, as her body was already moving on its own, winding its way forward with a sinuous grace she'd had only beneath the water of the well.

"Who dares approach m'lord?" Jakenchallenged her, gesticulating with his staff.

Kagome's body eyed him with eyes gone red. In her usual state of mind, she would have seen the logic of it: an unknown, unfamiliar demon on the border of control approaches Sesshomaru just after his return to his fortress. Of course they would be challenged. But the eyes she gazed out of were once again that of the tremendous beast, and the toad so far below her might as well have been shouting into a strong wind, for all that she heard him.

She threw her head back and howled out her own challenge, youki suddenly flaring out with enough strength to bowl Jakenover. It was not a howl like a wolf or a dog, or even a great cat's screech. It was something unfamiliar, like a monster from a movie. Kagome felt a flare of youki reaching out to challenge her own, but she had no interest in the master of this house.

Darting forward with uncanny speed, she attacked the miko, who looked at her with wide brown eyes before her body smashed against the flagstones.

Digging long teeth into her clothing, she pulled her with her as an irate Inuyasha slashed at her with his father's fang. _Draw them into the open, _the voice in her head prompted and she followed it's instruction, making for the open gates and slipping through with her prize before the stunned guards, who'd gotten used to her presence, had even thought of closing them against her.

She'd made it no more than two hundred yards in lightning-quick bounds before Kikyo slapped a hand burning with purification against the side of her muzzle. Roaring with pain, Kagome's jaws opened enough that Kikyo's robes slipped free and the miko was quick to put distance between the two of them.

"What the hell is this, Sesshomaru?" Inuyasha yelled.

His older brother's voice, stoic, answered, "This is not this Sesshomaru's plot, hanyou."

"Oh yeah? Then want to tell me why there was a demon waiting to attack us, inside your fortress, the moment we got through the gate?"

Sesshomaru turned cold golden eyes against his brother, but Inuyasha simply glared back.

Inside her chest, Kagome could feel the jewel shards pulse. Apparently, so could Kikyo. "It's got jewel shards, Inuyasha!"

Kagome snarled at the priestess, mind too lost to the jewel's power to speak in a human tongue. The jewel, with its malicious sentience, seemed to realize that she wasn't utilizing its power, so it flared its influence.

But here was one advantage Kagome held over other possessed demons. The vast reservoir of her power was not contained within her body, the part that had existed for hundreds of years already and simultaneously existed in all times. That the jewel could not yet touch, the few fragments of itself that the miko had managed to gather, thought the full Jewel would have been able to pull the power crashing down upon its host. But without enough power of its own, it could only augment the abilities of a demon only a few weeks old, who really didn't know her own power.

Inuyasha tried to bar her way to the miko as Sango tossed Kikyo the bow and quiver that had been lost in the initial struggle, but Kagome was familiar with Inuyasha's power but clumsy fighting style. She caught the hanyou in the gut with her horn, tossing him over her back, charging forward into her target, who was now facing her with nocked arrow, tiny smile on her face.

Her arrow blazed with purification as she released it, but Kagome opened her mouth and _breathed_ toward it, blue tendrils of power. The part of her that was still Kagome was astonished as those smoky tendrils seemed to eat away at the arrow, the wood crumbling into dust before it reached her. Judging by Kikyo's wide eyes, she hadn't expected it either.

Her forward momentum was lost when she had to leap out of the way of Sesshomaru's acid whip, which burned a line on the ground in front of her.

Snarling at the demon who had dared to intrude in a fight that was not his business, she was taken by surprise when a tiger three times her size hit her midsection like a freight train. A roar of pain and betrayal escaped her, because she could scent Temujin in the beast.

Momentarily distracted, because he had dared challenge her, she faced him rather than Kikyo. Gathering her youki like she might pick up a weapon, she prepared to crush his fighting spirit. However, rather than bludgeon her with his own youki, the tiger diminished, until it was Temujin in his humanoid form looking at her. Hands up, voice calm, he asked, "What are you doing? What's wrong?"

With the lull in the violence, the jewel's influence slipped a little and she was able to struggle to speak to him. _Temu…jin…_she managed,_ the jewel… _

His eyes sharpened. "What jewel?"

_Get it out! _she howled, shaking her body violently as she tried to reject it's influence entirely. She could feel them now, knots of corruption buried beneath her skin and she began to claw at her chest as she struggled to reach them and remove them.

Startled, the Inu-tachi and Sesshomaru looked on with wide eyes, but Kikyo, ever pragmatic, had already drawn her bow again. Kagome braced herself for the burn of purification that she knew would come, but when she opened her eyes, Temujin was standing by her side. In his hand, snapping and crackling like a fire, was the arrow. Clenching his fist, he snapped it in two.

When he turned to her, she could see his eyes were blazing with nearly as much intensity as the arrow had, but his hands were steady as he reached into the bloody furrows she'd already drawn in her own flesh. "Kagome, what in the world were you thinking?" she demanded, stooping to inspect the wounds in her chest. "Why would you allow a tiger youkai to remove those? The tips of their claws are blunt, so they tear rather than slice. These will take days to fully heal!"

_Sorry, Hoshiko,_ Kagome said, wincing as the inuyoukai female probed the wounds with more force than she felt was really necessary.

"Kagome?" Miroku's voice was incredulous, as if he couldn't quite believe he hadn't misheard.

Kagome sighed, a full body movement that ached, then rose to face the monk. She didn't even bother with attempting a weak smile, as the human gesture would look out of place, but she tried to perk her ears up becomingly. _Hi, Miroku-sama. Long time no see, _she joked.

"You have to be joking," Sango said slowly.

_Sorry, it's really me, _Kagome confirmed. _Fluffy tail and all. _

Inuyasha's jaw had dropped so far it looked painful. "But you're a…"

"Youkai," Hoshiko confirmed. "Full-blooded, not a trace of ningen left in her."

"But how?" Inuyasha demanded. "I thought only the jewel could do something like that." His glance strayed to the few shards still clutched in Kikyo's hand. Noticing his interest, the miko put them away, as if to remove them from sight would similarly make them leave the hanyou's mind.

Hoshiko placed a maternal hand between Kagome's horns. "This is the incarnation of the Bone Eater's Well," she declared.

"What?"

Miroku sighed as he put the pieces together, raising a hand to rub at his forehead. "She's become a spirit demon. It's not unheard of for humans with great spiritual powers to become demons. Ancestral spirits, especially of demanding or trouble-making people, are always in danger of becoming youkai. It's why proper and timely rituals are so important. Kagome didn't _almost_ die at the well, Inuyasha. Her human body did die, but her spirit must have become entangled with the well. Eventually, when it had gained enough strength, it changed her body to suit its purposes."

Kagome watched Inuyasha's expression, but it was surprisingly closed to her. There were few times she'd seen him look so like his half-brother. He turned to face her slowly. "So you can't sense the jewel shards anymore?" he asked and she flinched, that he would choose that to be his first question.

_No_, she said, not admitting she could still feel the flare and beat of them on Kikyo. It wasn't the same draw she'd experienced as the Shikon miko. This was just a demon sensing a jewel that held a deadly allure.

"And you're really a demon?"

Kagome shifted uncomfortably, _Yes. _

Inuyasha sighed and it was if all the air escaped his body, shoulders slumping. "Well, shit."

Kagome blinked, surprised, but Inuyasha walked over to where she was standing. She sensed Temujin stiffening next to her, which was confirmed when Inuyasha looked at him and said, "Back off. Kagome is _mine._"

While human Kagome would have been and was still slightly flattered by the sentiment, youkai Kagome bristled subtly, because she knew that this hanyou didn't have enough youki to be properly called her alpha.

Inuyasha, oblivious as ever, continued to tromp towards her and she had to swallow down a growl and suppress the instinct to puff herself up like she was in some kind of dominance contest. Inuyasha was her friend, she reminded herself, and leader of their group. When that didn't serve to calm her marshalling responses, she compromised with herself. Co-leader. After all, when they were chasing shards, once they caught the scent, who gave the directions? Kagome had. So she figured that made her co-leader. That thought seemed to satisfy her instincts and she was able to limp towards Inuyasha without lunging for his throat.

When they'd reached each other, Kagome sat on her haunches, curling her tail over her clawed feet. Inuyasha crossed his arms. Finally, he cleared his throat awkwardly. "So, you can't take human form?"

_No. Not yet, _she amended. 

He glanced over her, from horntip to talontip. "Kinda small, aren't you?"

Kagome rolled her eyes. _We can't all be towering behemoths with acid drool._

That sparked a grin. "Heh, guess you might be more useful like this after all. You smell funny, though."

_Gee, thanks, _Kagome remarked dryly.

Shippo had scampered up during their conversation and was looking at her with such a quiet, adult intensity she felt compelled to dispel it. Leaning down, she huffed through her muzzle like a horse, fluffing his hair with her warm breath. _Why so glum, kiddo?_ she teased.

She was rather appalled when instead of smiling, tears began to gather in his eyes. _Hey, hey, _she said, lowering herself further until she was at eye level, _What's wrong, Shippo-kun?_

"You're a demon," he said miserably.

_Well, so are you, _she pointed out, taken aback.

"You smell weird," Shippo snuffled.

Lost, Kagome looked to Hoshiko for help. The golden inu was inspecting the fox kit, but she must have felt Kagome's questioning gaze. "If foxes are anything like dogs, they identify things primary by scent, especially while they're young. I imagine it would be quite traumatic, if he was close to you, for your scent to change so dramatically. It would be like going blind and having a loved one stand in front of you, but you would never be able to see them again."

Understanding, Kagome turned back to Shippo. _So, how do I smell weird?_ she asked encouragingly.

"You smell cold," Shippo replied, venturing a very small smile.

_I didn't know cold had a smell. _

"The kit's got a good nose," Hoshiko replied. "That's what I think you smell like too. Well water from deep underground."

Temujin nodded. "If yin had a scent, I think it would be similar to yours." Kagome scowled at him, because the first two words that leapt to mind with the yin association were _wet_ and _corrosive_, which she supposed were fairly accurate, but not exactly flattering.

"Can you travel with those?" Inuyasha asked. "I don't want to spend any more time with Lord Fluffy over there than I have to," he said, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder at Sesshomaru.

Kagome considered, then nodded.

"Oh no you don't," Hoshiko said, flicking her painfully on the nose like she was her disobedient pup. "You think after all the trouble I went through with you, I'm going to let you bleed across the countryside?"

Kagome risked a glance at a scowling Inuyasha. _I wouldn't want to burden Sesshomaru-sama's hospitality any further. _

Hoshiko darted a furious look at her lord, demanding he take her side against the foolish little demon who was attempting to go against her healer's orders. That in turn made Sesshomaru scowl. "Do as you will," he said. "This Sesshomaru will have no part of this." So saying, he turned on his heel and returned to his fortress.

"I swear, that _male_," Hoshiko muttered. "He has no sense of curiosity at all." Then she turned her ire back on Kagome. "You barge out, attack a guest, have shards of the Shikon jewel pulled from your chest, and then think you can escape without telling me the story behind it?"

_You know, for a moment there, I thought you were worried about my health, _Kagome teased.

"Tch," Hoshiko sniffed haughtily, "You're not some fragile ningen. You'd survive even a tiger putting his claws in your chest," and she shot a glare at Temujin that said she didn't approve. "Two days bed rest and I'll let you leave. No arguments."

Miroku cleared his throat, circumventing an argument. "We have been traveling rather hard. We'll be glad for a rest."

-X-X-X-

While Hoshiko located enough rooms for the others to stay in, Kagome was curled on her pallet in Hoshiko's sitting room. Hide was in human form, gleefully brushing out her mane and tail and she was grateful that she didn't seem to have nerves attached to the long hairs.

Sango was watching her with a faint smile on her face, Shippo at her feet looking like he wanted to join in but didn't dare. As Hide was perched on her shoulders, Kagome slowly unfurled her tail, edging it toward Shippo. _You know, _she said conversationally, _I think there's another comb over on the dresser. _

The kit bit his lip, then trundled over to said comb and slowly began to pull it gently through the hair. It was certainly more relaxing than Hide's enthusiastic ministrations further up, so she left him to it.

"So, a demon, huh?" Sango said at last.

Kagome shrugged carefully, mindful of the pup. _It's not as bad as it could have been. I could have turned into a creepy hanyou like Naraku. In comparison, not having thumbs is paradise. _

"Can you get back through the well now that you are the well?" Sango asked carefully.

Kagome's ears laid back as she considered the frustrations of not being able to return to the future. _I think I can, _Kagome replied. _Or rather, I could, if I had any clue how. _She avoided mention of that dark ocean of time that lay beneath the well. That seemed intensely private, even from Sango or Hoshiko.

There was a particularly sharp tug at her mane. "Sorry, 'gome," Hide chirped. Kagome twisted her head around to gaze at the pup he was looking at her with an expression of cherubic innocence.

_If I don't have any hair left, it'll be 'sorry, 'gome' for you, mister, _she threatened jokingly. _Look at Shippo. He isn't abusing my poor tail, but it still manages to get combed out._

Shippo's narrow shoulders straightened and he took more care with his next stroke, but Hide looked deeply suspicious of his gentler method.

"Hide is doing it wrong?" he asked her.

_Well, no, not wrong, but you have to be gentle. Don't you like it when your mother has more time to groom you than when she does it in a hurry?_

Hide considered this, nodded, then went back to his work with more care.

She looked over as Sango giggled. _What's so funny?_ she asked, though she had a good idea.

"Nothing, nothing," Sango said, waving it off. "It's just good to see being a youkai hasn't changed you."

_Are you kidding? This fiendish ball of energy has taught me the patience of a saint. _

Sango laughed and leaned forward. "So, when do you think you'll be able to take human form?" she asked eagerly. "Traveling with Kikyo has been better, but she still makes me want to strangle her. You _cannot_ let her take Inuyasha back."

_Well, _Kagome rumbled grouchily, _at least he can't call me a reincarnation anymore. Kikyo's got all her own soul back. _

-X-X-X-

Sesshomaru lingered outside Hoshiko's rooms, half-listening to the inane conversation inside. Whereas he hadn't before been much interested in the fate of Inuyasha's miko, as she was she presented a threat to his court. She had all the youthful inexperience of a pup, but the youki of a much older demon.

It would have been far less troublesome if she and the other miko had killed each other. One day Sesshomaru would crush Naraku with his own fangs and that would be that—there was no need for the Shikon jewel to ever be whole again. But as things stood, that woman's son was no closer to an explanation of whom or for what purpose the former Shikon miko had been resurrected.

A flash of color at the end of the hall caught his eye. _Temujin. _Sesshomaru wondered at the tiger's interest in the affair. Part of him wondered what would happen if he were to enter the room with the well-demon. Would the tiger attack? He'd certainly displayed a certain proprietary defensiveness of the female when she'd been controlled by the jewel shards.

It was curious, because Sesshomaru couldn't remember the tiger acting so boldly before now, preferring to keep to the shadows and out of disputes. _Does he hope to claim her?_ Sesshomaru thought with a kind of detached amusement. There would be no offspring of such a union, but perhaps there was a further appeal that he had overlooked. It certainly couldn't be as simple as the promise of her youki alone. Though, upon consideration, he supposed that the roaming tiger youkai could very well be interested in her power alone, having no hereditary lands to protect. Any lands he would gain would be through conquest—a path that would be smoothed by having a demon whose youki could eat through a priestess's purification at his side.

Sesshomaru resolved to watch the tiger.

A/N: All right, I don't actually know that Mongolia was called Mongolia during Japan's feudal era, but please overlook it if you know better. Thank you for reading and I'd be very pleased if you review. Even if your review is, "All we got to see of Sesshomaru was that little bit at the end?" I do want to keep him in character, which kind of necessitates almost painfully slow growth and involvement on his part. He's the kind of frustrating character who is always moments away from walking out of the frame because the events of the plot aren't his problem. A generous heart he is not. But, luckily, he's pretty enough to make up for all the frustration.


	4. The Long Road to Victory

Disclaimer: The mysteries of copyright belong to Rumiko Takahashi-sensei.

A/N: Ah, another day, another chapter frolicking through feudal Japan. Comments and questions are always welcome and I hope you enjoy the latest installment.

The Bone Eater

-Chapter Four-

The Long Road to Victory

The strangely kind, understanding, and _quiet _Inuyasha seemed to have evaporated overnight. Kagome knew beyond the shadow of a doubt the sun hadn't even risen yet when he barged into Hoshiko's outer room and demanded, "Wench, are you ready to go yet?"

She supposed that answered the question about whether or not she would be allowed to rest. The pups seemed have multiplied while she was sleeping, because small furry bodies tumbled down like walnuts in the autumn when she stood. Sleeping growling and grumbling, little white milk teeth exposed, they trundled into a new pile beneath her or curled tightly into themselves, covering dark noses with their tails. If Kagome had eyebrows, she was certain she would have raised one, because it looked like every pup under ninety from Hoshiko's pack had been sharing her pallet last night.

Her own familiar russet-colored kit rubbed sleepily at his eyes. "Inuyasha?"

"Come on, we're burning daylight!"

Kagome moodily wished she'd never taught him the modern phrase. Sighing through her muzzle, she stepped carefully around the warm little bodies. One pair of dark eyes stared steadily at her. She batted at Hide fondly as she crossed near him.

"Goodbye, Kagome," a small voice whispered as she neared the door. Turning to see, she was surprised to find Hide in his human form.

_Goodbye, Hide_, she whispered back.

As she turned once again, his small voiced asked, "Will Kagome be back soon?"

Kagome hesitated. _Not soon, Hide._

"Then Hide will wait for Kagome to come and play again."

If it wasn't for Inuyasha, all but tapping his foot impatiently in the threshold, she might have turned back. Waited until at least the sun was up and she could offer a proper goodbye. But instead she settled for making a pleased rumbled and sliding through the door.

Inuyasha marched down the corridor ahead of her and Shippo. _You can ride if you want_, Kagome offered the small kit, who had never before hesitated to take advantage of the riding platform her over-stuffed yellow backpack.

"Really?" he asked eagerly.

_Really_, she assured him with amusement, thought the hour was still ungodly. She hadn't even had to wake up this early to go to school. She'd seen many of the demons in the fortress go for days or weeks without sleep, but Hoshiko told her she was too young, "little more than a pup," had been her exact words, to claim that kind of endurance.

She felt Shippo clamber onto her back, anchoring himself on the spurs of horn that jutted out just before her neck met her shoulders. Kagome would eventually learn that they were there because the juncture of spine there was one of her most vulnerable points and it made it more difficult for an enemy's jaws to clamp down, but for now they were just another peculiarity of this new body.

Kagome brightened when she saw the others already assembled, pointedly ignoring the presence of Kikyo. For the girl who'd once had the most luggage, now she was tied with Kilala for the least.

"Did you have a pleasant rest, Kagome-sama?" Miroku inquired.

Kagome glared at Inuyasha, who, of course, had gone to stand by Kikyo's side, making it that much more difficult to ignore her. It wasn't that Kagome exactly hated the elder priestess—it wasn't really in her to hate much of anyone—but all she'd ever known was her coldness, scorn, and duplicity. It wasn't exactly the combination to win a girl's trust.

"We need to leave," the older girl said.

_Hai, hai_, Kagome muttered. It bothered her to think that now _she_ would be directing their group. _Where are we going? _

It was Miroku who answered her. "If you were better, we originally planned to travel to Edo so that you could make the trip through the well."

Kagome swallowed painfully. Mindful of demon ears, she said, _It's fine if we don't._

Miroku's eyes widened, but he had no chance to respond, because there was a huff of disgust from behind her that raised her hackles and gave her the sudden feeling her mother had somehow been transported to the feudal era. "And if you don't visit the well, how long do you think it will be before your strength gives out? Or do you intend to not eat as well as leaving without your injuries fully healed?"

Hoshiko had brought a new pair of guards with her that Kagome didn't recognize, but she did recognize the expression on the demoness's face. "I won't accompany you into the human city, but I'll travel to the well." She gestured to the burly dogs that flanked her. "My hunters can take care of your feeding. Although in time you'll need to learn to hunt for yourself."

"Feeding?" Inuyasha demanded. "What, anything less than demon food not good enough for her now that she's a pureblood?"

Kagome winced.

Hoshiko snorted. "You young fool. You'd starve her if you tried to feed her in that body she's wearing."

"What do you mean?" Sango asked cautiously.

"Her fate is now tied to that of the well. This form she wears is nothing more than the expression of her power. Even you, hanyou, should be able to discern that from her scent."

Inuyasha bared his teeth at the reminder of his heritage, but Kagome slipped her narrow body between them before Inuyasha could start something she _really _didn't want him to try and finish in his brother's fortress. _Let's go_, she projected cheerfully. _The sooner we get to the well, the sooner I get breakfast. _

She didn't think too hard on that, because the thought of never being able to taste chocolate or ice cream or fast food ever again was rather depressing. She couldn't even eat the food of this era, let alone think of indulging in the flavors of the future.

Another obstacle appeared when they reached the gate. While Sesshomaru's sentinels moved to open the doors for them easily enough, what was not so easily dismissed was the unexpected visitor.

"You!" Inuyasha barked, hand going automatically going to Tetsusaiga's hilt.

Living among the peaceful order of Sesshomaru's castle, she'd desperately wanted to see her friends again, but she'd also forgotten just how difficult life with them could be. Two almost fights before they'd even made it out the gate.

_Temujin? What are you doing here?_ Kagome asked the red-headed tiger demon.

He raised a brow, as if he thought the answer to that question should be obvious. "You overpowered my youki."

_Huh? _

"House rules. Since I challenged you and lost, I'm your subordinate now," he said with a toothy grin that seemed entirely too pleased about that fact.

_But you're a _tiger, Kagome replied with exasperation. Maybe the average commoner of the feudal era wouldn't know anything about the social structures of wild tigers, but Kagome was a child of the future, born of the auspices of the star of television. Like many small children, specials on wild animals had been a staple of her youth. And she knew that except during mating season, male tigers and female tigers both were essentially loners.

That, and the way he'd phrased it made Kagome feel like she'd fallen into a shounen manga. If he started calling her "Boss" or "Ane-san" or something equally as surreal, she'd know her life had taken a definite turn for the ridiculous.

"Your friend over there has a demon follower," Temujin waved a clawed hand toward Kilala, who only watched him with interest, which Kagome took as a good sign. "I'll make myself useful."

Despite his claims of being her _follower_, it was Temujin who turned on his heel and walked out the gate first before even Inuyasha could protest. She thought he might even have been whistling.

Kagome resisted the impulse to flop to the ground, pull her tail over her eyes and return to sleep. _That one really sets his own pace, _she growled to Sango.

"Another difficult man. Just what our traveling circus needed," Sango replied drolly.

"Surely you don't mean to say I'm difficult, Sango dear?" Miroku asked as he gave her a cheerful pat on her backside.

Even Kagome flinched at the whipcrack sound Sango's hand made as it impacted with Miroku's face.

-X-X-X-

"M'Lord?" Jaken's voice broke the silence as Sesshomaru watched through the veil of trees at the spectacle his brother's party was making at the Bone Eater's Well. The young demoness had already disappeared down the shaft in a haze of black and blue energy, the same energy that had so easily consumed the creatures that Hoshiko's hunters had thrown down the well like tribute. Nearly the same energy that had consumed the priestess's arrow.

Jaken, used to his lord's silence, continued his inquiry without being acknowledged. "If your humble servant might ask, why are we trailing your half-brother's party?"

Sesshomaru turned down narrowed amber eyes down at his imp-like courtier. "Do you think this Sesshomaru does not have a sufficient reason for doing so?"

"I did not mean to call your plans into question, M'Lord," Jaken croaked, bowing deeply and backing away, like he expected to be kicked. It was a fairly reasonable precaution.

"Naraku desires the Shikon Jewel. It will be the only reason for which he will leave his lair himself or send his incarnations out."

"Ah, very clever, M'Lord!"

As Jaken continued to babble a long string of praises, Sesshomaru refocused his attention on his half-brother's pack. The tiger had come. He hoped it could be attributed only to the youkai's growing restlessness in his court, but Sesshomaru never trusted to such emotions.

Temujin had the potential to be an irritating enemy, but not a particularly dangerous one. He had no power base in Japan and the extended campaign he would have to wage from his homeland would be complicated by the Ming. Temujin had come over to Japan during the time of its predecessor, the Yuan, likely hoping the imperialist ambitions of the humans would extend their influence into Japan, thereby giving him an opening to establish his own island nation.

However, the fleets of the Mongols had been lost and since that time Temujin had drifted from court to court, ambition forgotten or at least deeply buried enough that none of the other three cardinal rulers had felt the need to behead him for his presumption. After he'd left the east, he'd lingered for a long time in the South under the old lord, who had been fond of bloodsport and exhibition battles. His son hadn't shared his vices, so Temujin had traveled north only briefly before becoming a fixture in Sesshomaru's own court.

Watching as the mortals and demons alike beyond the tree line struck a temporary camp to fix a midday meal, Sesshomaru commanded, "Retrieve Ah-Un and Rin."

Jaken sputtered. "M'Lord, you cannot be serious about joining them!"

"This Sesshomaru will not crawl in his half-brother's tracks across half of Japan."

-X-X-X-

This time, when the ocean swallowed her up, Kagome didn't panic. Her long, undulating body drove her through the dark water like a sea snake, illuminated by the blue glow of the lights that congregated around her.

_This can't really be time, can it? _Her rational mind thought that, but the part of her that had risen up in response to Temujin's challenge thought that no, this could indeed be time, a river so deep and wide that it seemed to be an ocean.

Kagome allowed the currents to tug her along, though she tried to remember the direction she had come from so she'd be able to leave in the right time. The thought made her hesitate, then she shook her head. This instinctive knowledge felt very strange. It was almost if she knew more through her senses as a demon than she had as a miko.

Scenes she could almost see floated past her as she drifted in place. People's voices she almost thought she knew. And then, strangers. One scene in particular caught her eye and she allowed herself to drift closer. Two young demons were speaking to someone. In human terms they looked fourteen or fifteen and were so physically similar they had to be twins, though they were study in contrasts. Where one had black hair worn long and braided, the other's was snowy white and worn loose with only the top layer pulled back. A woman's voice laughed and the image was disturbed, dissipating back into the darkness.

Kagome wondered quite suddenly who had built the well. It had been old even in the feudal era. _Has it always been here? A weak spot in the fabric of the world, with time flowing just underneath? _She was almost certain she could still use the well to go home, once she managed to maintain a human form. If her suspicions were correct, she might even be able to use the river to emerge only days, minutes, or even seconds from the time she'd left instead of the times running parallel.

_Could I also go back even farther? _Maybe a Kagome of the future had already gone back. Perhaps she was still feeling the repercussions of a Kagome in an even more distant past. The possibilities made her head ache just thinking of them.

A part of her wanted to escape back into the straightforward world above, but a larger part wanted to stay in the quiet dark here, bathed in luminescence, far from the hanyou she'd once given her heart to. Kagome knew Inuyasha had _always_ chosen Kikyo. And that had been when she'd been only a soul trapped in a jar of clay like a lightning bug in a mason jar. How much worse would it be now?

_And…I'm a demon now. I can't even take human form. Inuyasha barely waited for me to wake up in the morning. What are the chances he'll wait for me to be able to change back? _

This body wasn't suited for crying, but, for the first time since she'd awoken to find herself a demon, Kagome gave in to the overwhelming sorrow, the sound coming from her long muzzle a high-pitched keening that made the lights gather more closely around her.

-X-X-X-

The tiger demon was by its very nature a proud and warlike species. Temujin was no exception. From almost the moment of his birth he'd experienced the best and the worst of the callous grasslands upon which he'd been born, until the tide and his wanderlust brought him to Japan. But here the time of the great wars between demons were over, giving way to the warring states of the humans.

So he'd stalked the courts, looking for something to catch his interest, because there was nothing more dangerous to an immortal than boredom. But the courts here were all so very polite and refined, nothing like the great hunts and tournaments of home to be had. Temujin was a warrior without a war, purposeless but blood-hungry.

So he'd begun to search for that purpose, waiting and watching with his calculating silver eyes for the right moment to strike. And when at last he thought he might have to usurp a cardinal lord's throne to see anything interesting, the little demon who'd once been the miko of the Shikon jewel tumbled almost into his lap.

He'd played at the idea of associating himself with her like a housecat who'd discovered a grasshopper. Temujin hadn't challenged her in all seriousness, but when he'd felt the weight of her youki, poised to consume him, his only thought had been, _Here at last is something interesting. _

And so long as she continued to remain so, there would be no servant more faithful. Perhaps in a few hundred years he might rebel against her, if she grew slow or tiring, but until then he would serve her causes as his own.

The deciding factor had been what he'd observed the few times the servants had helped her to bathe. Kagome would never think to use him properly, would never demand anything he couldn't easily meet.

Besides, this whole situation was all sorts of amusing. Temujin grinned at the seething dog, leaning familiarly against the well that Kagome had disappeared down some five minutes ago.

"What the hell do you think you're up to?" Inuyasha demanded.

"I'm following my alpha. Got a problem with that, pup?"

"Yeah, I got a problem with that," he yelled, stalking forward. "Because I'm Kagome's alpha and I say get out of my pack!"

"Inuyasha…," the dark-haired monk gestured in what Temujin thought was supposed to be a calming manner, hands moving up and down like he was kneading bread dough or trying to push down Inuyasha's anger.

"The way I see it, there are two alphas in your pack. Three, maybe, if you want to count your onna over there. Bad idea, by the way. That one's ningen. Kagome could eat her alive. But as long as Kagome wants me here and you have your bitch, you don't have much right to complain."

Logic seldom stood the test in Inuyasha's world and now it failed again. "Kagome is mine!" Inuyasha barked.

"Really? You challenge her while I wasn't looking? She might follow you, hanyou, but there's no way that beast submitted to you."

"Kagome loves me," Inuyasha snapped.

Temujin thought that had been fairly spectacularly obvious, but if he felt the need to say that to a stranger's face, the pup was more insecure than he thought. Cold grey eyes traveled over to where the miko of the group stood silently, watching with very little emotion in those brown eyes. Temujin offered her a toothy smile. "What's your objection to me?"

"What?"

"You brought in a new alpha female while Kagome was injured. That kind of behavior says you're looking to replace her. I refuse to compete for leadership of a ragtag group of ningen, so I'm not a threat to you. If Kagome wants to bring me along, it's none of your business."

"You brought yourself along, you bastard! Do you want me to believe you're really loyal to Kagome?"

That smile he'd been wearing turned cheerfully cruel. "At least as loyal as a dog. My nose isn't dead like these ningen. I figure if I avoid outright betrayal, that might put me at the top of the list of loyal followers." Temujin crossed arms corded with lean muscle across his chest. "Though I guess Jaken wins that one outright. I'm not much for all that scraping on the ground."

"You damn cat," Inuyasha growled.

"You dumb dog," Temujin mocked. "Give me a break, pup. I'm at least twice as old as you. Even if I wasn't, you think a tiger and a dog could have an equal match?"

A chillingly familiar voice answered. "If the dog was not a half-breed whelp, without the sense his ningen mother should have given him, then yes."

"The bastards are multiplying," Inuyasha grumbled. "Now what the hell are you doing here, Sesshomaru?"

As Ah-Un landed on the grass behind him, with both the imp and the ningen child in the saddle, Temujin narrowed his eyes. Sesshomaru wouldn't bring his ward just for a fight with his brother. And by the look of Ah-Un's saddle bags, he was prepared to feed the girl for a long journey. He couldn't be….

Apparently, he could. "The Sesshomaru will be joining you on your hunt for Naraku."

Before Inuyasha could say something and attempt to turn the event into grudge match, the monk once again intervened. Temujin was beginning to detect a pattern. "We're honored for you assistance with this matter, Sesshomaru-sama," he said while bowing.

The demon slayer didn't look too happy with the lord's presence, but she didn't protest, though she did sweep up the small fox kit into her arms. The priestess had her lips pressed together, one hand trailing slowly toward her bow. The movement attracted the inu youkai's attention and that harsh amber stare pinned her with a challenge. Just as slowly, the priestess lowered her hand.

"We don't need a demon's help," she said in a low voice.

That made a white brow raise speculatively. "This Sesshomaru sees just as many youkai as ningen here."

"Well, we don't want _you_ here, bastard," Inuyasha snapped. "This is my territory."

"This Sesshomaru did not realize you intended to hunt Naraku in a single forest. Or is he in the human city that you claim?" the lord asked coldly.

Inuyasha snarled wordlessly, but before the conversation could turn into a rather one-sided challenge for dominance, Temujin heard the clatter of Kagome's talons on the stone and wood of the well. Turning to her, he noticed she looked much better than she had before she'd descended. Her pelt now shone with blue highlight and her eyes almost looked like they were glowing.

Large blue eyes, not quite human, took in the situation. With a serpentine grace that belied her usual not-quite-certain-of-her-own-body gait, she stepped from the lip of the well. _What's going on?_

"The bastard thinks he's coming with us," Inuyasha answered her.

_Oh._ Kagome's head inclined in the direction of the daiyoukai. _Thank you, Sesshomaru-sama._

"You're agreeing with him?" Inuyasha yelped in surprise.

Kagome and the hanyou proceeded to have a staring match. _If we keep working at cross purposes, Naraku's only going to get stronger. _

"I can beat him," the dog insisted.

_I know you can, but you also know that Naraku never works alone. So neither should we. And if the strongest youkai we know wants to help us, we shouldn't say no just because he's your brother. _

"Did something go wrong in your brain? Do you not remember who you're talking about? He tried to kill you when you met!"

A wry look bloomed on Kagome's face and her ears twitched in amusement. _I think Temujin is the only one here who doesn't have that honor. It's practically a bonding ritual. Besides, he no longer needs Tetsusaiga. _

"I don't like it," Inuyasha declared, crossing his arms across his chest like a stubborn child.

Temujin's own tail swished in amusement as Kagome scowled, exposing the sharply pointed teeth of a predator. _You don't have to like it. _

"Yeah? You gonna make me?"

The growl that spilled from Kagome's mouth sounded like it belonged to a much larger creature. Inuyasha's petulant posture was lost as his eyes widened and mouth dropped. Even Kagome herself looked a little startled. Shaking her head as if to clear it, she replied, _No one is going to make you do anything, Inuyasha. But wouldn't it be best for everyone if Sesshomaru came with us? _

Inuyasha turned that over carefully, before giving a huff of frustration. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. But let's get this straight, this is my pack."

Sesshomaru's lips twisted with disdain. "Your status is in no danger from this Sesshomaru."

Inuyasha turned on Temujin then, who watched the proceedings with amusement, tail still twitching. "And you. Kagome, is this bastard bothering you?"

_Temujin? _Kagome glanced over at him. _I wouldn't say he's harmless, but he probably won't murder us all in our sleep. _

Temujin chuckled at her prudent "probably." Finally standing from his indolent pose against the well, he spoke. "See, pup? You just occupy yourself with finding Naraku and I'll keep Kagome nice and safe, so we all go home happy."

That, apparently, did not make Inuyasha happy, but finally he barked, "All right, break camp. We're wasting time."

As if Naraku might suddenly win this little conflict if his ragtag team wasn't ready to leave within seconds. But no one complained, Temujin kept quiet, next to Kagome. He watched with interest as she bristled when Inuyasha knelt, allowing the miko to ride on his back. A soft rumble escaped her, so low he might not have heard it if he'd been further away. The neko released its seal and the demon slayer climbed onto her back, staring suspiciously at the monk as he slid in behind her. The kit glanced toward Kagome, but joined the two.

As they struck out at a fair pace, Inuyasha and his burden in the lead, Temujin murmured, "So, how's this work?"

_We travel until I…until Kikyo senses a shard. Then we hunt it down. _

"So, we strike out at random, then?"

_It's not exactly a grid pattern search, _Kagome admitted with some embarrassment.

"Ah, well. It take long to hunt them?"

_Sometimes, yes, sometimes, no. It depends on whether or not we're lucky. _

"Good." When she glanced up at him, he continued, "Plenty of time to train you, then."

_Train me? _

He was rather surprised at her surprise. "You don't think you are just going to know everything be default, do you? And Sesshomaru's really the only other full youkai here qualified to teach you too much, unless you want to put up with Jaken. How did you learn to be a miko?"

Her reply was a dry as the high steppes in summer. _Error. Lots of error. _


	5. Dominance Theory

Disclaimer: If I owned this, I would know what I was doing after graduation.

A/N: I've posted a concept sketch for Kagome over at Dokuga, so if you're curious, you can head over and check out their fanart gallery and type "The Bone Eater" in the search box.

The Bone Eater

-Chapter Five-

Dominance Theory

She didn't care that his mother had been a tiger. Temujin was a mean son of a bitch, no two ways about it.

Kagome rose on shaky legs, fangs bared and a bestial growl pouring from her throat.

"There's my good girl," Temujin said approvingly.

Kagome lunged at him, jaws snapping, talons extended. And he hit her so hard against the side of her muzzle that she was thrown to the side from the force of it. She'd also heard the snap of bone, but she ignored the pain and rose, trying to focus on a slightly fuzzy tiger youkai. _What is the point of this?_ she snarled.

"Exercise. Practice. Think of it as bonding time."

Kagome very nearly literally saw red, but she forced down the instinct.

"You're doing it again," Temujin said provokingly. "If this is what you did as a miko, I can't imagine you were very good at it. Where were you raised? They might as well have sent you into the world blind, deaf, and dumb if all they taught you was to suppress your instincts."

Yes, well, in the _modern_ world, she didn't have a _tiger_ teaching her to hunt and fend for herself in the wild. No one was trying to get her in tune with demonic instincts she wasn't all that fond of to start with. When she was hungry, she went to the convenience store or to a restaurant. _And_ it was cooked.

She'd tried to convince Temujin she couldn't eat with this body, but he hadn't listened. He'd insisted she was an extension of the damnable Well and eating should come as naturally here as there. Eventually Kagome, worn with his constant need to beat a lesson into her, had managed to consume an entire rabbit. Without ever touching it. That strange blue-black energy had dripped from her jaws and she'd watched the poor creature's body decay and turn to dust in a matter of seconds.

It hadn't taken more than twenty paces from the Well itself for Temujin to declare that he and Kagome would be following a little behind the others. What irked Kagome was that Inuasha had eventually agreed to the arrangement. Sometimes she could catch the sound of Shippou and Rin playing together, but otherwise Temujin was careful to keep them out of the range of Inuyasha's hanyou senses. "Don't want to have to put the pup down just because he doesn't know what it's like to be a demon," he'd muttered.

Kagome bared her teeth at her companion in the present, ears pressed flat against her skull, strong tail whipping behind her with her anger. _Temujin, why won't you allow me to travel with the others?_

The youkai smiled at her, baring his own broad fangs, his thick red hair a little disheveled, but not truly the worse for wear. "When you can take humanoid form, I'll let you travel with them. Until then, fight me."

_Didn't you say you were my subordinate? And it takes years for a demon to achieve humanoid form!_

"Like all good subordinates, I help my master become the best she can be. When you came out of the Western Fortress, those fangs and talons might as well have been fashion accessories. Besides," he said with a rumbling chuckle, "you've been human before. It won't take as long as you think to achieve a humanoid form."

And then he struck without warning, tearing long furrows along her ribcage, following the bone upwards and she twisted away so he couldn't tear out her spine. _Hoshiko would kill you_, she snapped.

"Hoshiko isn't here. If you don't attack, I'm really going to hurt you."

This time, when the red stole over her eyes, Kagome _roared. _

-X-X-X-

Sesshomaru frowned, the faintest of movements, as Rin shivered, dropping the stitched leather ball she and the kitsune had been playing with. The young youkai and her tiger companion were closer than usual today. He knew she couldn't hear the smaller sounds of their battle, the snapping of saplings, the crack of larger limbs when they took to the trees, the ripping of flesh, but even his ward's ningen ears had heard the rage-filled cry that made the birds for miles around take to the skies.

He had noticed it before, but the female's enraged call still sounded like it was produced by a far larger body than the one she inhabited.

Inuyasha's displeasure was far more visible, but though his scowl was deep, he didn't go after her. Sesshomaru approved. Whatever strange coincidence had made his half-brother's miko into a demon, she at least was learning to live as a youkai. The transition seemed stressful for his brother's pack, though. Both the slayer and the houshi were ignorant of the battle, but they couldn't miss their alpha's cues. The scent of worry hung around them like miasma.

The revived priestess herself, whom he'd previously observed to be a cold-hearted onna on the level of his mother, even seemed a little worried. Emotion seemed to be slowly seeping back into her, like she was a vessel being filled drop by drop with water.

The well-youkai's kit, who had previously been playing rambunctiously with his own ward, seemed to be struggling against the urge to run for his protector. "Kagome-okaa-san…"

"Keh," Inuyasha bit out dismissively. "Don't pay any attention to them."

This time it was a tiger's screech of pain that reached his ears. Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed. For being so recently "born," the female was doing remarkably well adapting. Almost suspiciously well. For himself, he still didn't trust this turn. It reeked of a plot. But none of the players had emerged. He'd inspected the arrow that had been in her himself, but it smelt only of Kagome and nothing more than its components.

"Will Kagome-sama be alright?" his ward asked him, brown eyes shining with concern.

"Do not bother Sesshomaru-sama with such tedious questions!" Jaken scolded, but the two younglings who looking to him to answer ignored the imp.

Sesshomaru closed his eyes momentarily so he could focus on the noise behind them. They were certainly very _loud_. Amber eyes opened. "She will be fine." The tiger youkai, however, needed to take care. Aware by habit of potential threats, which the Shikon miko had once been, he had seen Temujin's experiments with her youki. If it was as corrosive as it appeared, the little demon might kill him if she lost control.

That thought made him smirk.

-X-X-X-

_What if they run into an enemy? _Kagome challenged Temujin a few days later. Knowing that her friends, kit, and would-be lover were just miles away in the company of her previous incarnation, yet not being allowed to approach them was one of the most frustrating situations she'd ever found herself in.

But the unflappable mass of muscle and claws that was her companion only laughed. "If they run into something that both sons of Inu no Taisho cannot defeat, you had best make for the mainland."

Kagome's blue eyes became slits in her dark pelt. Had Temujin somehow missed out on the whole point of her quest? Or rather, their quest, because the Shikon jewel could only be purified by a miko. Which she wasn't. Anymore.

Then she decided it must be another of Temujin's taunts. _What do you want me to do?_

Temujin pressed a clawed finger directly between her eyes and leaned close. "Be human. I know you can. But you have to want to."

_Of course I want to be human! _Kagome protested, but even as the words left her, she doubted them. Being human again would mean being with Inuyasha. Being with an Inuyasha whose first love was no longer a stolen soul stuffed into a container.

But Inuyasha was more than just her love interest. He was her friend and companion through long years of adventure, whose usual brashness made it all the sweeter when he rescued her time after time. The others as well, especially Shippou, who depended on her, she wanted to go back to them.

Sighing through her muzzle, she looked down on her reflection in the still, deep pond that Temujin had decided would be an excellent place for a cat-nap. He was already settling into a convenient patch of sunlight.

_How does one become 'human'?_ she asked the demon who watched her from the water with alien eyes. Kagome had always been terrible at visualization exercises—one of the many reasons why she required focuses like arrows for her powers to work properly—but now she tried to remember what it had felt like to be a girl.

The memories came harder than they should have. A frisson of panic came when she had a moment's wonder about being bipedal, but her anxiousness seemed to help, making the memories come faster.

Human was riding a bicycle instead of curling through the air. Human was the sensation of taste without being ill. Human was having thumbs, something fragile cradled there without breaking. Human was fragile skin. Human was duller sight. Human was dancing on two feet, laughing with a voice, smiling with a mouth not filled with razors. Kagome was human.

Something cold touched her nose and her eyes opened to find she'd been slowly tipping forward into the water. Overbalancing, she went under with a splash.

Flailing her arms, Kagome righted herself after a moment, crawling out onto the bank coughing water. Intending to give the lake a dirty look, she froze like cornered prey at the reflection that stared back. She looked like herself!

Or well, close enough to count, she thought optimistically. If she ignored the horns that jutted out just above her ears, which themselves tapered to a sharp point, and the long nails on the hand she raised to trace the line of her jaw, she looked nearly human. Unlike Sesshomaru's distinctive markings or the ones that appeared on Inuyasha when he lost control of his demon blood, she had to look close to see a thin strip underneath each eye, like well applied eyeliner, that was a shimmering metallic blue that reminded her of the light within the well.

Touching the water, just to confirm to herself that this was indeed her reflection, she disturbed the image. In the ripples, for a moment, she thought she caught sight of some other face. This one resembled her, but it was older, the lines more austere. The horns were longer and broader, sheathed in some dark metal, from which rings hung. Her bare shoulders were covered with what looked like worn leather armor and a cape made from the feathers of some great bird flowed dramatically down her back.

Then the water settled and the image of Kagome returned. Swallowing nervously, she whispered through stiff lips, "Temujin. Temujin!" Her tail thumped gently on the ground with her pleasure and Kagome curled it around her to shield her nakedness, not terribly upset at the extension to her spine that was almost as long as she was tall.

"Well done," Temujin congratulated her proudly.

He was about to say something more, but Kagome's sharp hearing at that moment caught the sounds of battle and she felt a pulsing ache in her chest where the jewel shards had resided briefly. The distant sound of her kit mewling in distress drove her instantly to her feet.

"Ka-"

Temujin only managed to speak the first syllable of her name before her body was once again lost definition as she leaped forward, landing on taloned paws, off through the trees like a black bullet. The distance between her strides became longer as she gathered momentum, until she barely touched the ground at all, swimming through the air like a water snake in a brook, her undulating movements whiplike as instinct urged her on.

Bursting into a meadow thick with wildflowers and the stench of blood, Kagome roared at the group of oni who'd challenged her companions. Shippou was clutched in the thick-fingered grasp of one, who'd been leering at the frightened kit like he was about to become a snack.

Only Sesshomaru didn't hesitate in his personal battle. Shippou yelled, "Kagome-okaa-san!" and the last threads of her questionable rein on her human reason unraveled. Lunging forward so quickly that time snapped together, Kagome appeared in front of the oni. It didn't even have time to look surprised as her flexible body curled around his stinking one, pinning him like a constrictor, digging front and rear talons deep, opening a maw filled with teeth sharper and more fearsome than a crocodile's. And down in her throat, welling up from her sea of qi, was the eerie blue light that had once heralded her travel between times.

Batting Shippou out of harm's way with a bat of her tail, Kagome watched the world through a red haze as she fed on the oni, who couldn't even scream as time ate away at his flesh. It was more of an energy expenditure to reach through the vast streams of time to find when the oni would begin to decay, but it was a lesser demon, not like Sesshomaru, who was more youki than matter. So centuries, not millennia of decay were compressed down into a few seconds and as the oni's flesh collapsed, Kagome fed on that time. If she'd been in any state to think of it, Kagome might have thought it felt a lot like eating and throwing up at the same time, as because she took him while he was still alive, it took as much energy to consume him as she got from the eating. Like celery.

But she was running on fearsome instincts that said something that was _hers_ was being threatened, so before the dust of the oni's bones even settled properly into her pelt, she was charging the next one. The scent of Shippou's fear was absent, so she was more animal than youkai, ripping at exposed flesh, moving from one target to the next in stream of violence.

When there were no more oni, she encircled Shippou with her body, pacing restlessly circles as she examined him for damage, allowing no one, not even the other members of the pack, close.

Shippou _knew _it was his Kagome-okaa-san, but it was hard to remember that when the beast, dripping blood, black gums still exposing razored teeth, eyed him with orbs gone crimson, only the faintest slice of black pupil remaining. He knew his fear only made thing worse, but he couldn't help it. Her scent, like cold, deep spring water, had grown stronger with the use of her power and it wasn't comforting, warm, or even mammalian. He wished desperately that he could smell the strange scent that Kagome insisted was peach that came from her shampoo or even the acrid base of alcohol that was her perfume when she forgot and wore it into the past.

But the more afraid he was, the more restless Kagome became, working herself into a frenzy exacerbated by the fact she had the power of a much older youkai than the years she'd lived as a human miko.

"Inuyasha?" Shippou asked in a very small voice, hoping beyond hope that the hanyou would be able to bring Kagome back to herself, like she'd been able to do every time Inuyasha's demon blood had overcome him.

The white-haired boy in question looked wary of the youkai snarling at him, but he sheathed his sword and made to approach, stopping when Kagome's growls dropped even lower, totally outside the human register.

"Kagome?" he inquired. "Shippou's fine. So just…calm down."

Sesshomaru barely restrained himself from scoffing. It was insulting enough that his father had tied him to human blood, but to also admit to being related to someone of Inuyasha's intelligence? His father could say whatever he pleased, but Sesshomaru was convinced that the human blood did not just dilute a hanyou's natural instincts, they also perverted them.

No male youkai would approach an enraged female with young smelling like another dominant female. Many youkai shared bestial instincts with their mortal counterparts—for some, it would register as an attempt by the male to slaughter the young and bring the female back into heat. Sesshomaru doubted this would be the case with the well-demon, as she was a spirit-type, which meant she did not breed in the same way that the bestial types did, but she showed all the earmarks of being almost pathologically dominant when instinct took over.

In a different time and culture, one Sesshomaru might never have been interested in even should he have lived through it, Alexander Pope would write, "Sharp Boreas blows and nature feels decay, Time conquers all and we Time must obey."

But Sesshomaru had endured for half a millennia without even approaching the peak of his development—he had seem time prey on the short lived mortals and drive youkai mad or into their graves just as surely as if they had been human. He hadn't consciously made the connection, as he had never known the true nature of the well, but his instincts were impeccable. The young demon was dangerous and dominant and Inuyasha, who wouldn't know what to do if drawn a diagram, was coming dangerously close to looming over her, keeping eye contact, ears perked erect on top of his head.

In short, he was more or less inviting her to attack. If this was a group of youkai, they would have the common sense to disperse until Kagome had calmed, but he could see this would not happen unless they carried his half-brother unconscious from the scene.

"Hanyou," he said in a low voice, not inviting Kagome attention to him, who was the most dominant of the group, "lower yourself."

"What?" Inuyasha barked, turning his head abruptly toward Sesshomaru, which was just foolish enough Sesshomaru expected Kagome to take advantage of the opening, but she did not.

"Lower yourself. You are not strong enough to prove yourself dominant to her."

"Like hell I'm not," Inuyasha protested.

"Perhaps, just so Kagome-sama will calm?" the monk suggested reasonably.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Inuyasha grumbled. "I don't want to put myself down there for easy pickings."

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed. "How human of you."

"Human? What's that got to do with anything? You seen what she did to that oni."

Jaken, who'd taken to the air with Rin when trouble had arrived, made a noise of disgust. "This is not a battle. She won't attack unless you challenge her."

"Well, why don't you submit yourself?" Inuyasha scowled at his brother's contingent.

Sesshomaru stiffened. "This Sesshomaru has not submitted to anyone since the death of our honored father."

"Well, then it's just about time for a reminder, doncha think?" Inuyasha taunted.

"Inuyasha," Miroku said, "it won't do any harm for you to do it. If Sesshomaru-sama gets closer, Kagome-sama might attack on principle." He raised a finger. "Just think of it as being sat by Kagome-sama."

Inuyasha's expression became downright petulant.

"Inuyasha…" Kikyous said softly, and his expression became resigned.

"Alright, alright, quit your nagging." Flattening his ears down against his skull, Inuyasha knelt near Kagome, tilting his head a little to the side to expose the line of his throat.

Kagome stopped growling, but Inuyasha couldn't help but think she looked more dangerous now that she was no longer interested in giving warning.

Carefully almost reclining on one side, careful to keep his hands from his sword, Inuyasha let out a shaky breath. He wouldn't mind doing this so much except that his damnable brother was watching, and probably getting a kick out of it, too.

He chanced a look, but he was surprised. Sesshomaru didn't appear to be gloating at all. Instead, most of his attention seemed to be on Kagome, which Inuyasha found unsettling.

_Inu…yasha? _Kagome's mental voice trembled a little, but she sounded far more cogent than when she'd been growling mindlessly at him. The red was slowly draining from her eyes, leaving them very blue in comparison.

Inuyasha sighed in relief. He really, really didn't want to present himself fully prone, belly exposed, in his half-brother's presence. The half-brother who probably didn't even think he knew the inuyokai equivalent of manners.

"Welcome back, Kagome-sama," Miroku greeted.

"Kagome-okaa-san!" Shippou cheered, tackling her neck and inhaling deeply, still trying to accustom himself to her scent.

_Careful, Shippou,_ she warned, _You'll get blood on your clothes. And I can't wash them like this. _

"'Kay," he mumbled into the somewhat wiry hair of her mane, coarse like a horse's.

_Where's my tiger? _Kagome asked, surveying the scene of carnage she'd left behind. She'd resigned herself, when she'd first become a demon, to scenes like this, but it didn't mean that the urge to flinch was any less pressing.

"Here, Kagome-sama," a voice said from a nearby tree. All but Sesshomaru and Kagome herself spun to confront the new voice. "I didn't want to come between you and your prey," he said by way of explanation as he dropped down onto the ground edging the meadow. "In my culture, it's considered rude, as well as stupid."

Kagome did her best impression of a scowl, pressing her own ears back against her skull, but from the confused impressions the fight had left her with, she thought that between her and Sesshomaru, they'd had the situation well in hand.

A thought then occurred to her and she eyed the hanyou. _How in the world did Shippou get captured? _she demanded.

"Keh. The squirt should have stayed out of the way. There was one with a jewel shard that was leading the rest. We had to take care of that one first."

Kagome's eyes became displeased blue slits. _This is why I need to travel with them, _she insisted to Temujin.

Temujin shrugged. "I said when you could take human form. If you can maintain it, I'll let you travel with them."

Kagome snapped at him irritably, but without any force or malice. _I hate you, _she pronounced solemnly to the tiger.

He smiled at that, wide and pleased, grey eyes gleaming. "It's good never to be too pleased with your retainers. It tends to make them complacent."

_We're staying_, Kagome decided. _And that's that. _She glared at Temujin, daring him to contradict her, already half resigned to leaving again.

A red brow rose. "As my lady wishes," he conceded easily.

Kagome stilled, not trusting this sudden about-face. _Really? _

"Take human form. And then we'll stay. Unless, of course, every time there's a battle you want to make the hanyou cower in front of you until you come to your senses." His grin was full of mischief. "That might be interesting, too."

Inuyasha snarled at him, "There wasn't any cowering going on!"

Temujin ignored him. "The hanyou can't help his nature. He's going to bluff and bluster to get his way. For his safety, you need to be able to overlook that. With your instinct to dominate, if he presses, the you right now will snap."

_But I don't have a need to dominate anything, _Kagome whined.

"Evidence proves otherwise," Temujin told her softly. "When you were human, dominance wasn't important to you, but now your deepest instinct will not accept anything but."

"Hey!" Inuyasha barked, disliking being ignored, "If Kagome wants to stay, she can stay. This is my pack and what I say goes! If you don't like it, you can hightail it back to Sesshomaru's place."

Temujin's cunning eyes slid to where Kikyo stood silently on the fringe of the encounter, strung bow still in her hand. "How many females, even human ones, will stand quietly by while they are replaced as alpha female in their own pack?" he challenged Inuyasha. "Tigers are not pack creatures like dogs, but I have spent enough time in the court of your half-brother to have seen what happens. If Kagome-sama should choose to massacre you both, I would not interfere. But it would distress her. So I will not let her kill either of you."

"You think it would be as easy as that?" Inuyasha shouted, enraged. "I could take her with Tetsusaiga and Kikyo is twice the miko she was, so you think she couldn't take her as a youkai?"

Kagome knew it was part of Inuyasha's nature to say rash, callous things and then regret them later, but it didn't stop the insult from piercing deeply. She'd been worried about her place in the group since she could no longer sense the shards, concerned she would become a burden upon her friends, which is why she had unhappily allowed Temujin to beat the crap out of her in the name of training.

Rather than confront her hanyou friend, however, Kagome turned and stalked into the woods, tail held stiffly. _Temujin, we're leaving. _

"As my lady wishes," the tiger youkai said softly, with a genuine smile that was full of fondness for the young demon who had retained so much of her dynamic nature as a human in her transformation.

A/N: Yes, Kagome will eventually travel with the Inu-tachi and Sesshomaru, but not until she has a little better handle on her instincts. Likely starting next chapter.


	6. Grin and Bear It

Disclaimer: Rights belong to all appropriate parties.

A/N: Apologies for a short chapter.

The Bone Eater

-Chapter Six-

Grin and Bear It

Kagome had lived in the feudal era for three years, but for most of those years she'd had easy access to the future and all the amenities it offered. Like shopping malls. She hadn't realized in the feudal era that clothes were such a precious resource, but she'd forgotten, if she'd ever known at all, how time consuming weaving by hand was. Which was a severe oversight on her part, given that in the past rice and cloth had been the two big tribute items given to Shinto shrines from their sustenance households.

In order to pay the spider demon for her clothes, it had taken a mind-numbing two weeks of hunting for the pelts of lesser demons. But Kagome would not say she wasn't pleased to pay the price, because the necessity of clothes meant that she could hold her human form long enough to need them. Now, after months apart from the Inu-tachi, the longest period of separation she'd had from them since she'd tumbled down into the past, she was finally preparing to rejoin the group that was _hers_.

Kagome shook her head and slapped her cheeks to rid herself of that thought. _Bad Kagome, down_, she thought with black humor. The whole, "I'm a fearsome demon, hear me roar," routine got old quick, but she couldn't seem to shut down the lower part of her brain in charge of the reaction.

Her human form, complete with its new appendages, came with a few irritations as well. Her horns made her hair lay funny unless she carefully braided the hair just above them back and her tail picked up burrs, seeds, and all sorts of forest debris. And talons on her toes as well as her fingers made her sadly resign herself to a life of open-toed straw sandals, though Temujin just snickered and advised going barefoot. She always gave a superior sniff and muttered, "Barbarian," under her breath, but she did wonder if her toes were going to get cold when she had to march through the snow.

She didn't know how Sesshomaru coped with having such long hair, either, having a good foot or four on hers, which was slowly driving her mad. If she wasn't sitting on it, it was getting caught in something, or a irritating bird demon was trying to steal strands to line its nest, her ability to fall into absurd situations somehow still intact even after her transformation.

Hacking her hair off was apparently a demon social faux pas, the length of one's hair apparently having something to do with the amount of their youki. Kagome had stared in disbelief at that little announcement. She thought it was probably an unsubstantiated bit of folklore, meant to irk little demonesses who'd never before considered following the current trends and getting a bob cut, but who were considering setting the fashion trend now.

The other realization was that period clothing was a pain in the nether regions. When she got to the future, she was enshrining zippers and Velcro, which were surely gifts of the kami, alongside a little sub-shrine for buttons. Everything had to be tied and there was layer upon layer upon layer of clothing if you dressed properly. Which she'd thought she was going to do, but about twenty seconds into being shown how the clothes would look she'd said, "No thank you, everyone in this era has already seen my legs and likely my underwear anyhow."

And then had come the tragic shock of trying to explain to the baffled spider demon what underwear were. And why you would want to wear them. The concept of panties had, sadly, gone right over her grey little head. Kagome had forgotten that Japanese women hadn't adopted them until the modern era.

So she was making do with a kind of loincloth and breast bindings beneath what she might have called 'tribal wear' in the future. Her skirt was essentially two rectangular panels of fabric that had been laced together for the length of micromini at the top, slit in the back to allow for her tail. The item fell to a very proper ankle length which was also as annoying as Naraku's insects, despite legs being more of a western fetish, even in this era. Kagome, who did read shoujo manga in her spare time, had expected some sort of skimpy top to go with the islander vide, but her fears were unsubstantiated. Bandeau tops and battle apparently didn't mesh as well as anime would have it. So she had to settle for what was more or less a sleeveless fitted gi, which had the cutest little armored collar worked into the design. "What is _this _for?" she asked in distaste as she'd held the item up for perusal.

"So no one cuts your head off, silly beast," the spider had muttered irritably and then promptly kicked Kagome out of her workshop.

Armor was apparently the _in _design element this season, because she had matching gauntlets, shin guards, and some sort of armor meant to go over the tops of her feet she couldn't even guess the name of. How the spider had managed to craft that in her tiny, cramped cave was beyond Kagome's ability to fathom. She hadn't even spied a forge.

Kagome was currently trudging grumpily alongside Temujin, who was rumbling with satisfaction and amusement. "Go fly a kite!" she snapped.

That only elicited another chortle.

"I've _never_ seen anyone older than a kit trip over their own tail. And never in human form."

"Hardy har har," Kagome sniped. "I hope _you_ trip and die."

"I'm heartbroken," he said without effort at sincerity.

"I'll break something if you don't let it go," she said through gritted teeth.

"What? A nail?"

Kagome shook her fist at Temujin, wondering where a good subjection necklace was when she really needed one, when familiar sounds drifted to her pointed ears. "I can hear them!" she squealed with glee.

"And every demon within a thousand li just heard that," Temujin said with a wince.

Kagome grabbed at his forearm and proceeded to drag the tiger towards the group, deftly guiding them to where she could hear the small sounds of the group making camp for the night. The thought made her glance up at the dimming sunlight, but there was no need to worry. Kagome had found, to her consternation, that being a well-demon meant having great night vision. Who knew? She supposed it made sense, the quality of light have very little to do with how a well perceived things, but sometimes knowing that you were really an inanimate object was more than a little surreal.

When she got to the edge of the treeline, the Inu-tachi having chosen a clearing for their resting place, she crouched instinctively behind a tree.

Temujin sighed and followed her example. "Again with the crouching."

Kagome shushed him, but caught sight of white in her peripheral vision. Craning her neck, she caught sight of the one person she'd suspected might detect her, but she'd thought he would ignore her. Red crept up her neck and found a home on her cheeks as an ice-white brow rose. Yes, hiding behind a tree, being stared at condescendingly by a cardinal lord with a stringer of fish dripping onto the forest floor was precisely how she had planned to reacquaint herself with her second family.

She bared her teeth. "What are you looking at?"

"A very foolish ningen who has become a very foolish youkai," Sesshomaru observed evenly, then without another word swept into camp.

She smacked Temujin upside the head with her tail when he snickered. Then, brushing leaves off her clothing, she stood and stepped into the small clearing. "I'm home!" she reported cheerfully.

Shippo let out an instant cry of delight and all but flew to her, nipping affectionately at her earlobes, something he'd never done why she was human, pressing his nose into the junction between her jaw and ear. He was chattering all the while about what he'd done while she was away, but Kagome could only nod, understanding about half of what he was saying. When she looked down, she saw Rin peering up at her quite seriously.

"Welcome back, Kagome-sama," she said shyly.

Kagome forbore from interrupting Shippo, but she smiled widely at the well-mannered little girl. But her smile faded as Kikyo emerged from the woods with an armful of kindling, Inuyasha following close behind with a brace of rabbits.

Temujin was radiated amusement again. "What?"

He nodded towards Inuyasha. "They're both bringing in food. Even though Sesshomaru-sama said he wouldn't compete for dominance of the pack, it's a subtle power play. If that woman, as alpha female, decides she wants fish tonight, Sesshomaru -sama can claim her and the rest of the pack. Or, at least he could if it was breeding season. But humans are in heat all the time. So maybe they've reached some sort of understanding about it."

Kagome wrinkled up her nose. "Is that true, Shippo-kun?"

He left off his story to nod. "For inuyoukai. Wolf packs are too big for only the alpha to hunt to bring in food, but inuyoukai are generally related and their packs are small. Food is one of the big things an alpha has to be able to provide to bring in followers and keep them."

Kagome reached up to fondly ruffle his hair. "And kitsune?"

He shook his head. "We don't have 'pack' the same way the inu do. You saw the school, right? We spend so much of our life as humans that we share a lot of human customs. It's one of the things the other youkai hold against us."

Kagome glanced back at the tiger. Who bared his impressive teeth. "Everyone eats for himself or gets eaten," he told her.

"Right," Kagome drawled. She turned her attention back to Kikyo to find that the miko was now ignoring her and continuing her task. Inuyasha looked torn, which made a surge of irritation run through Kagome, but she squelched the emotion. And if she maybe stalked more than walked through the campsite, she could be excused. "What progress have you made with the jewel?" She winced even as the words escaped her mouth, because it just sounded so..._Sesshomaru _of her.

The Kikyo of the past would have made some cold comment about competent leaders, but now the miko turned to Kagome with a look of nervous apology on her face, something reflected in her scent. "We've collected a few jewel shards while you were gone, Kagome-san."

The action reminded her that Kikyo's past actions hadn't been precisely Kikyo's fault. Kagome might have been irritable with only half a soul too. She certainly remembered the pain of having the rest of it removed. She suddenly wished she'd been able to train herself to quash the dominance instant better, but her only companion had been Temujin and he was a cat, which meant that he'd submit with a Cheshire grin and then go on doing as he pleased. So it had been an aspect of training somewhat ignored in favor of regaining a human form and learning not to dissolve her allies with her personal equivalent to Sesshomaru's acid drool.

But that did not mean she had not improved, simply that she still had to reach for the more human instinct.

"That's good," Kagome said, semblance of good cheer restored as she worked a little harder for it.

"Are you rejoining us permanently, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked.

Kagome nodded, suddenly feeling shy, tucking a lock of dark hair behind her ear.

"That's excellent news. And may I say, Kagome-sama, that your human form is very pleasing to the eyes?"

Kagome instantly knew where his speech was headed, and apparently so did Sango, who slapped the monk upside the head. "Hentai!" she barked at him. "But you do look very nice, Kagome-chan. You actually don't look all that different."  
Kagome brightened at that. "If you overlook the tail, the ears, the claws...," she teased, her voice full of mirth.

"Well, there is that," Sango replied with a grin. "So, can you eat now? Because we were getting dinner ready."

Kagome grimaced. "I'll pass on that, Sango-chan. Solid food in human form is still a no-go. I fed before we came, so I'll be all right for a day or two."

Sango nodded, then turned to look inquiringly at Temujin. "What about your tiger?"

"Oh, I'm a responsible pet owner. I fed my tiger while we were at it."

Sango snickered and Inuyasha looked over at Temujin, who was looking over the campsite with curiosity. "So, you're her pet now?" He probably intended it as a jibe against the tiger, but it was soon turned against him.

Temujin's indolent expression changed in a heartbeat, a sly smile lighting his face. "I even purr when stroked, pup. Maybe you should have tried it."

_"Hey,_" Kagome scolded Temujin, but without any real heat. Because she was still a little irked at Inuyasha and he did look funny, jaw hanging low and eyes bugging out. But, with a swish of her tail, she dispelled the unkind thought.

After a few more minutes of chatter, the others fell back into their routine of setting up camp, which was all well and good, excepting the fact that she seemed to no longer have a place in that routine. Baffled and trying not to show her discomfort, she took a seat with her back to a tree, watching the small actions of the humans as they came to the tail-end of establishing their camp.

She'd always wondered in the past-alright, perhaps she was lying there, but she had considered it a time or two now-if Sesshomaru was as impervious to the elements as he seemed, never carrying even so much as a raincoat with him. Her own camps with Temujin, it still being summer, had generally been sparse to the point of nonexistent. She generally returned to her demon form, not have the concentration needed to keep human form while sleeping anyway and Temujin did whatever Temujin felt like doing, whether that was sleeping in a tree or using her as a pillow. Neither needed to eat as often as her human self had, so often their only baggage-or, rather, his only baggage-was the alcohol that he coaxed her to share.

As his familiar shadow appeared beside her, she glanced over at the tiger, who sprawled easily on the forest floor. Head cradled in a taloned hand, she could almost see his tail twitching as he joined her observation of her pack.

"Worth it?" he asked her.

Kagome snorted. "We haven't been here an hour yet and you're already ready to leave?"

"I just don't understand your human attachment to a pack you've clearly outgrown-if it's a pack you want at all," Temujin mused. "Short-lives certainly aren't the kind of company a youkai like you or I should keep."

Kagome frowned, but this was an argument they'd already had. Did it bother her that she was almost guaranteed to outlive all her friends and acquaintances from this time period? Yes, it did. Perhaps she would even outlive the entire race of bestial demons, given that she'd seen the well in her future but neither hide nor hair of a youkai that wasn't preserved or the spirit of an animated object.

But Kagome refused to be melancholy about something that hadn't even happened yet, wasting what time she'd been given. To Temujin, who had already lived many lifetimes longer than a human, perhaps forty years didn't sound very long, but it would be twice as long as Kagome had yet lived. Her sensibilities about time remained human and for that, she was grateful.

She smiled up at Sango as the woman joined her. "Glad to be back?" Sango asked as she arranged herself comfortably with her portion of their meal.

Kagome offered her a timid smile, suddenly unspeakably glad for such things as eyebrows and a mouth not full of fangs. "Yes," she said, her eyes straying to where Inuyasha was sitting with Kikyo, eating with better manners than she'd ever known him to have. She hesitated, then asked, "What was it like, traveling with her?"  
Sango followed her gaze. "She's tolerable," the slayer admitted. "It's certainly different."

"You mean that she's had actual training and could survive in this time period on her own if she had to?" Kagome replied dryly.

Sango giggled despite herself. "Well, there is that. But no, it's a lot-well, I wouldn't say it's quieter, because Inuyasha and Shippo are as loud as ever, but it's like someone lowered our happiness quotient. Without you here, we're all a little too serious, a little too focused. It's easier to lose sight of the good things in life and regress to what we were."  
Kagome searched Sango's slightly embarrassed expression. "Thanks, Sango," she said softly. "But I think you're overestimating me a little. Besides me, you have each other. You won't let each other go that easily. That's what pack is."

-X-X-X-

Pack was also, apparently, waking up to a tiger youkai draped over her and getting an earful from Inuyasha about it. Glaring up at the insolent hanyou with slitted eyes, Kagome contemplated doing something vile-like zipping him into a sleeping bag full of centipedes-as revenge, but the thought was lost as she yawned widely, standing so that a discontented tiger rolled from her back and into the loam.

"You shouldn't drink so much," she advised sagely as Temujin muttered depreciating things about her character to the forest floor. Her transition from human to demon was much smoother than it had been, so there was no awkward moment where she had to check to make sure her clothes had survived another transformation.

Sango looked like she was stifling a laugh and Kagome grinned at her. A small sound at her feet attracted her attention and she found that it wasn't only a tiger she'd sent tumbling-like a wooly worm uncurling, Shippou yawned broadly, rubbing at his eyes. "Inuyasha is _loud_," he complained to her.

"Yes, Inuyasha is," she agreed.

Inuyasha's ears flattened against his skull and he scowled at them all. "We should have been up and moving already!"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Yes, because the shards already scattered to the far ends of Japan will get even further away if we don't hurry. The horror!" she mocked.

"You won't be laughing if Naraku gets to them first!" he snapped.

She sighed. "Inuyasha, if Naraku had a better method of finding them than us, it wouldn't have taken us three years to get where we are now. As it is, Naraku has endless hordes at his command he could have scouring Japan, and what does he do? That's right, shows up and tries to take our shards. Which means his method isn't any better."

Inuyasha, who should have been used to being challenged by Kagome by now, looked perturbed by her argument, as if it had never occurred to him. Which was pretty excusable-it hadn't occurred to her until she'd become a demon and become isolated from the quest, which despite many misadventures rarely left them time to reflect on the nature of the errand that had brought them together.

Kagome sighed again, more deeply, as she gathered Shippou and tucked him on her shoulder. "Well?" she asked. "I'm ready."

Inuyasha blinked. "What, that's it?"

The mysterious fate of her yellow bag was a curiosity, but she thought that perhaps Hoshiko might know. But, as it was, it didn't much matter. "Inuyasha, I can't get back through, well, me, so it's not like I can make a ramen run. And even if I had my clothes, could you imagine wearing my school uniform with this thing?" She twitched her tail to draw attention to the appendage. "As for the rest? Well, let's just say my upkeep routine is a little different these days." Though perhaps combing her hair wouldn't go amiss, she thought as Shippou encountered a tangle.

"Hn. Well then, let's go," Inuyasha grumped. And they all fell in behind him as he and his miko passenger led the way, though Sesshomaru gave a very good impression of just happening to be heading in the same direction, rather than following. The pace was more strenuous than the leisurely travel she had done with Temujin, but her new body made light of the strain.

Light enough, in fact, that she could keep pace with Kirara and gossip with Sango, telling her about her misadventures in demonhood and in return receiving tales of the Inu-tachi's own adventures.

It was almost enough to distract her from the fact that it was not her, riding on Inuyasha's back, straining for a hint of a jewel shard. Her own two feet were smoother, sure, but the warmth of Inuyasha's sturdy back couldn't be replaced by even immortality and the ability to manipulate time.

Clenching her teeth, Kagome kept back tears and smiled more widely for Sango. It would just take some getting used to. That was all.


	7. Time is a Tapestry

Disclaimer: If I own anything but the plot and my original characters, may I hang until dead. (Of course, I do have a lot of original characters-no poaching, you lot!)

A/N: Here you are, another short installment, where something called the plot finally kicks in. You didn't even have to wait months for this one. If you're glad, review!

The Bone Eater

-Chapter Seven-

Time is A Tapestry

The paper was worn, the ink almost unreadable. It was also something immeasurably precious. Raika did not need to look at it to remember the words it contained, centuries since memorized, but he wanted to see the shape of the characters, written in the hand that had been familiar to him long ago.

It was not the most graceful, nor the most cogent, it did not even broach poetic. She had been none of these things. But she was still reflected in her writing, in the freedom of the strokes, even mired as they were by misery, in the awareness of the recipient, in the strange characters only time by her side had taught him.

_Raika, _it opened, with the nickname she'd given him. He could almost hear it now, in the kind of joy she'd always spoken with-he could not imagine her voice clouded with tears. Her compassion ran deep and steady, like the ocean, but she was also strong, stronger than anyone he'd ever known and she turned sorrow into a kind of strength as well. And she must have known so much of it.

_I know this is selfishness, but please, as the only favor I will ask of you, consider this the last gesture of my love, my precious Kuroraikami. When this finds you, I will already be beyond your reach, for my time is at an end at last. During our time together, I told you many stories, for you were a curious and clever child, but I never told you my own. _

_ You must feel betrayed as you read this words. I know you thought you would find me waiting when you returned, whether the years that passed were two or two hundred. We are youkai, after all-time is something we can afford to be generous with. But it was not always so for me. I was born human, brief as that life was, and always time held me in a different regard than the youkai it ignored and the humans it adored. If time is the great river, the bottom always shifted where I stood, until the day I fell into a sinkhole and was swept away, counter to the current. _

_ Thus I can say that I was born in a future you cannot even imagine and I lived in a past so ancient as to be dead to the memory of youkai. But even when I'd been swept so far towards the beginning, I did not live as others live. That would make me very old, wouldn't it? Even a youkai might be driven to madness by that stretch of time-even the gods themselves are not immune to such a vast and terrifying life. _

_ I continued "slipping," one moment my world as firm under by claws as anyone's, then the next I would be a hundred years downriver, my life before now only a memory to all but me. It was not constant-I could live twenty years in peace, slip sixty, live a hundred, slip seventy. I would learn to sense when my time was about to end, but not yet._

_ I cannot express to you in words how difficult this time was. Please do not take this as pleading for pity and understanding; it is your right to be angry. And you might be angrier yet when I tell you of the shameful way I learned to keep living on. _

_ You know me well, know I have not the wisdom to do what might be perfectly obvious to some. A wise, hard man might quit making the bonds with others that caused such pain. But I hadn't the heart to do it, my son. In all ages, in all places, there are beautiful people. And such terrible holes they leave when you must leave them behind. _

_ A heart can only shatter so many times before it becomes difficult to pick up the pieces, like building a mirror from grains of sand on a beach. And so I found a way to give back what had been so precious. Before I left each life, I tore aware the brightest and the greatest memories, those of friendship and caring and entrusted them to the one that I would miss the most. Was it cruel of me? I suspect it was-the tiny fragments could torment them as they did me, allowing them to see the memories I'd always before carried in my heart. _

_ I took with me only the memories of bloodshed and power, for if I could not stay, then I was at least determined to return to where I belonged. And those were terrible, burdensome memories, but even being robbed of my memories of friends did not take the feelings they had inspired. _

_ This slip will be my last. I am almost "home" now, though my heart is scattered throughout the ages. You are probably not the only child of my heart that I have raised, but I can recall enough to say with surety you are the only one that I have told this story. For you I leave more than the others, though whether this is a greater or lesser inheritance is for you to decide. _

_ The self that you knew, the product of endless wars and struggles, has no place where I am going. With this letter, you have found two objects. One, a single shard of opalescent glass, is the container of my memories with you and all the others that made this time a place I have no desire to escape. The other, the dark jewel, is the container of all the knowledge I've accumulated through the ages, all the memories I've never seen fit to leave to others. To you, it is nothing more than colored glass. The memories inside are sealed. I learned long ago the lesson of objects of power misused. Shatter it if you wish, sink it to the bottom of the ocean, trade it away as a bauble. They are only memories-I take my power with me. _

_ If we, by some happenstance of fate, see each other in the dim future, know that it is not out of rejection that I no longer know you. Think instead that I could not bear to know that I had parted from you. _

_ I leave you with all my son, _

_ Kagome _

Raika's teeth clenched. The wound was old but still healing. His claw tipped hand went to the choker at his throat, then his eyes traveled to the great bow that leaned against the wall, carefully wrapped for travel. It was said to be made of one of her horns, when it had been broken off in battle, strung with hair donated by one of the princes of the land.

Then he turned from it, ashamed. For it was the same bow that had stolen his mother's human life. It had been among the memories she had left to him, faded and dim, perhaps unintentional in its inclusion. But in it he had seen himself, using the bow none but herself had dared touch.

He flinched at the memory of the reality. _Time is a wheel-what we do has already been done. _Those were words spoken by okā-sama herself, who ought to know, but it did not relieve him of the guilt. To raise his hand against his mother was shameful. _Will you forgive me for this, I wonder? _he asked himself. His fingers closed over the jewel at his throat. _Would you believe, I only wished to see you again, okā-sama? _

Sensing the approach of another youkai, the letter was quickly stowed in his clothing, his expression smoothed over. The inu before him bowed, before saying, "Welcome back to the Western Fortress, Kuroraikami-sama. I hope you trip was pleasant?"

He inclined his head and the servant continued, "Sesshomaru-sama is absent at present. He has joined his half-brother in campaign against Naraku."

Raika's eyes narrowed. "I see."

"Will you be meeting with the council?"

"There is no need," Raika replied. "Sesshomaru is young, but capable enough. I do have some questions, however."

"If it is within my power to answer, I will."

"Did the one called Kagome join them?"

"The Well Demon? Yes, Hoshiko pronounced her fit enough to leave. Why, my lord? Is there something about her that troubles you? She seemed quite pleasant, if a little strange. But that only be expected, considering she was the Shikon miko reincarnated before she was transformed."

Raika repressed the scowl that wanted to form. It seemed there was much of his mother he didn't know. Perhaps his actions had been rash, but he had happened to catch sight of her in company of the old General's bastard offspring. And human lives were so short and uncertain-if he hadn't acted, he might have lost her again.

_I will restore you, okā-sama. Every day, I learn more of who you were, how great the legacy you left me. You should meet some of your children! I've been looking for my siblings, all this time, hunting for the remnants of you. All of them are remarkable beings. And they are all willing to return your memory, when the time is right. Until then, be under the protection of my grand nephew. His veneer is hard, but underneath is someone you would have been proud to call your own. _

"Take me to Hoshiko," the great black inu commanded, following the servant in a silent billowing of green and white silk. "I would speak to her about this Kagome."

-X-X-X-

The wind whipped at her hair, caught and tangled in her tail, but Kagome didn't really _feel _it in the same way she would have as a human. She was mightily curious to know if she even felt it like other demons. After all, there were fundamental differences between, well, dogs and wells.

Kagome frowned again. Turning from the commanding view of the landscape from atop the cliffs, she made the short journey down to where the rest of the party, sans Inuyasha, was waiting. Apparently, while the journey wasn't worth the difficulty for Miroku and the others, the appeal of the scene had long since been eroding for Temujin and Sesshomaru. Or, at the very least, it wasn't appealing enough to share it with Inuyasha.

Edging close to the stoic inu, Kagome stared ferociously at him, attempting to get him to acknowledge her. Eventually he turned his amber eyes to her and her tail gave a short wag to commemorate her victory. Blushing under the raised eyebrow that prompted, she asked. "Can I...talk to you, Sesshomaru-sama?"

"This one was under the impression you just did so," he replied, in a tone that made it monumentally obvious he didn't much care one way or the other, in much the same way he wouldn't care if she'd tumbled from the clifftop.

Being used to being brushed off by Inuyasha, this sort of tepid, silent preference for silence wasn't much of an obstacle at all. "I want to talk about feelings," she prompted.

"Your questions are then best answered elsewhere," was the prompt reply.

"Not _feelings _feelings," Kagome said impatiently, "but y'know, how you perceive things. Do you think you feel them differently because you're an inu and I'm a well?"

Sesshomaru considered her seriously for a moment, which in itself was a better reply than she had been hoping for. "It does not matter," he concluded.

"Yes, it does," Kagome argued.

"Sensation is not something one can take out and measure. It is not a sword or a horse. Therefore, one's own experience is the only one you will ever know and the only one that is any importance. You are in the unique position of being able to measure your experience as youkai against your experience as human, but outside comparison beyond that will only leave you disappointed."

Kagome considered that, then wondered if an EEG might be able to compare the electrical activities in both their brains when exposed to outside stimuli. The idea was immediately nixed, because "lab rat" wasn't among her career preferences. Still, what might Sesshomaru of the closed-book say when she told him that they had machines in the future that could measure the physical activities of the body so closely they could almost interpret emotion?

And then, she realized she'd been doing it again. Temujin called it "speaking human." What he meant was she was sense-blinking herself subconsciously, looking for the signals a human would look for, not a youkai in general or an inu-youkai in specific. But she really couldn't help it. Wells didn't come with inborn instincts, unlike animals. She only had her human standard to judge things by. Despite the sharpness of her senses, she routinely underutilized them so she could process them in the same way she'd always done.

Sesshomaru was, first of all, listening. To her and to everything around them, his posture open, his head canted so he could better listen to the sounds from beyond where they'd taken shelter, a concave wall of rock that wasn't quite deep enough to be called a cave.

And his scent projected nothing but ease. Kagome's sense of smell wasn't good enough to pick up the subtle nuances, nor was her brain wired to interpret them without a good deal of wrangling and a few half-forgotten biology lessons, but she thought that Sesshomaru might actually be trying to put _her _at ease.

Just like any good alpha. Kagome blinked, then glanced at his pack members. Ah-Un was sleeping, Rin already making a nest in its crossed forearms that she was graciously allowing Shippou to share. Even Jaken was nodding off, his weird fire-breathing staff threatening to slip off his shoulder and crack him in the noggin.

And that, she realized suddenly, might have been a direct result of Sesshomaru. The moment he tensed, his youkai companions would be on the alert and his human ward would follow their lead.

She'd seen this kind of effect before, in the Fortress, but it was generally only so strong between mothers and their young. Only the very strong sub-alphas could emotionally and physically influence their subordinates through only their state of mind.

_He's a very _good _alpha_, she realized with a start. _I mean, I knew he was strong, but I didn't realize he was even capable of recognizing the emotional needs of his followers, let alone meeting them. Which, on second thought, is dumb. Doesn't everyone say human infants will die without kindness? And Rin's not that old. Yet she always looks _happy _to be around Sesshomaru. So he can't be all bad, right? _

Turning her attention outside her thought, she stilled immediately when she saw that Sesshomaru had been eyeing her features and tail with interest. Kagome frowned repressively at him. "If you're doing that inu mind-reading thing that Hoshiko does, keep your thoughts to yourself," she grumbled.

A very, very faint smile pulled up the corner of his lips, which let her know he knew _exactly _what she was thinking. Kagome groaned.

-X-X-X-

Contrary to her impression, Sesshomaru did not know what the young youkai was thinking, but it was amusing to let her think he did. She expressed herself erratically in this form, sometimes using hand gestures and facial expressions so like a human her tail might not have existed, at others so ignorant of the appendage she did not think to still it. It was curious.

And it was interesting to watch her small sub-pack. She darted here and there, curious as a pup, with the dexterity and limberness of a ferret, while her tiger cat-napped. Their pace was very different, would almost clash, but something made their partnership functional. Neither seemed to bend to accommodate the other, but somehow Temujin seemed to be where he was needed when he was needed and Kagome still so taken by the small details of the world and how she interacted with it they didn't trample over each other too badly.

Much more peacefully, in fact, than the former miko and his half-brother got along. If he had been a stranger and had witnessed one of their "talks" he wouldn't suppose them to be anything more than hostile acquaintances. After their reintroduction, Inuyasha seemed to have forgotten that the well demon had rightfully usurped his place as alpha, if he had ever had it. Which was why their commentary on his competing for leadership of this pack had been ridiculous-who was he to fight when the alpha was absent?

His brother might think of himself as beta, by virtue of barking loudest, but all he did was charge forward. Kikyo directed them, the monk advised him. Either would be a more likely beta, which required a precarious balance of intelligence, strength, and a willingness to submit to the demands of the alpha. Which the monk did, with grace. When Kagome spoke, he _listened_, with the kind of intent and constantly calculating listening that the very best subordinates were capable of. He, obviously, belonged to Kagome. As did the kit, who obviously thought of himself as her kit, just as Rin based her identity on her relationship to himself.

The slayer was a little harder to read. Her alliance was with Kagome, but it was the alliance of one alpha female to another, for common cause. It was likely, he predicted, that after this fight with Naraku was over, she would break off and form her own pack, perhaps stealing Kagome's monk. Though that might only be proximity.

Inuyasha and Kikyo had become their own sub-pack, in part because those allied with Kagome over Inuyasha mistrusted the female. Which, Sesshomaru acknowledged, was a singularly reasonable reaction and ought to be encouraged. She was obviously a trap, but his suggestion they foil any plans in the making by destroying her had been vetoed.

But the risks incurred in keeping the abomination fell on Kagome's pack; so long as it stayed there and proved no threat to him and his, alive she would remain.

Though, and he watched as Kagome, quite visibly to his eyes, quashed the urge to make her replacement submit, she ought to be very careful. For if the young youkai lost control of her instincts, Sesshomaru wasn't going to be the one to stop her.

Noticing that she had scaled the cliff wall again, Sesshomaru relaxed further against the rock face. He needed little sleep, but it was better to do so now, when the threat of danger was distant, than postpone and endanger his pack. For her instincts seemed to know better than Kagome herself. Even if her body language was broken and her senses misused, there seemed to be some deep flicker of pure youkai, the kind of instinct that had driven her to make his half-brother show his belly, the kind that almost made her defend her rights on the male of her choice, even if he did not return her feelings.

And that situation did not bode well. Sesshomaru frowned internally as he turned over the possibility, which roused him from the first fog of sleep. He himself was rather young by youkai standards, but old enough and disciplined enough that he was not slave to his instinct. But sometimes frivolous, carefree, newly youkai Kagome?

Control was the furthest adjective from his mind when he thought of her. But she was a spirit demon. They didn't go into season, so perhaps it was a vain worry. Or mayhap not so vain. Only time would tell. Dismissing his misgiving, he settled into sleep, content with the knowledge that his own honed instincts were reinforced by the other alpha's.

A/N: If you're confused, that's okay. Things will be clearer in future chapters. And if you aren't, that's okay too.


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